Exports continue to decline, drop 24.33% in September
India’s exports shrank in September for the tenth straight month as shipments of several key products including petroleum, iron ore and oil seeds declined by a significant margin. Exports during September fell by 24.33% to $21.84 billion (about 1.45 lakh crore) from about $28.87 billion (Rs.1.76 lakh crore) during September 2014. Overall exports during April-September this year contracted by 17.63% to over 132.9 billion (Rs. 8.53 lakh crore) as against about $161.4 billion (Rs. 9.72 lakh crore) during the same period in 2014-15, said the latest data released by the Commerce Ministry on Thursday. Expressing concern over the continuous decline in shipments, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President S C Ralhan said the downward trend has “put enormous pressure even in realising the export figure which we achieved in 2014-15.” During the last financial year, India’s merchandise exports crossed $310 billion. In September this year, exports of petroleum products witnessed the sharpest fall of 60.35% and reached $2.44 billion, while the export of iron ore fell by 40.37% to $9.47 million and oil seeds by 37.18% to 60.95 million. Ralhan, however remained positive about October shipments and said, “The reduction in expected credit rates following reduction in key rates by RBI and encouraging IIP and manufacturing data for the month of August, is expected to show better exports result in October 2015, as generally there is two-three months lead time between manufacturing and exports.” A record decline in imports came as a relief for the country’s trade deficit which was estimated $68 billion in April-September 2015-16, lower than $72.7 billion registered during the corresponding period of last fiscal. Imports during September declined by 25.42% to reach 32.3 billion (Rs.2.14 lakh crore) as against the total inbound shipment worth $43.3 billion (Rs. 2.64 lakh crore) in the same month a year ago. The total imports during first half of the current financial year also contracted by 14.16% to $200.9 billion (Rs.12.90 lakh crore) as compared to about $234 billion (14.09 lakh crore) in April-September 2014-15. Ralhan also urged the government to take some quick measures including reintroduction of interest subvention scheme, expansion of MEIS benefits and reduction of transaction cost for exporters to revive India’s foreign trade.
October 16, 2015 | 3:19pm IST.
to success.