Contracting for the sixth straight month, India's exports slipped 12.66 per cent year-on-year to $22.7 billion in August, on account of fall in the shipments of petroleum, leather, engineering goods and gems and jewellery items, as per the government data released on Tuesday. The contraction in August was higher as compared to 10.21 per cent in July and 12.41 per cent in June. Exports stood at $25.99 billion in August 2019. The country's imports too declined 26 per cent to $29.47 billion in August, leaving a trade deficit of $6.77 billion, compared to a shortfall of $13.86 billion in the same month last year, as per the data. The deficit (the difference between imports and exports) was $4.83 billion in July.