Exports shrink again, down 17.53% in October

The Dollar Business Bureau

Exports of iron ore registered the maximum decline, falling by 57% to $2.46 billion

  India’s exports contracted for the eleventh straight month in October as outbound shipments of major commodities fell by 17.53% to $21.35 billion in October. “Cumulative value of exports for the period April-October 2015-16 was $154.3 billion as against $187.3 billion, registering a negative growth of 17.62% over the same period last year,” Ministry of Commerce & Industry said in a statement. Exports of iron ore registered the maximum decline, falling by 57% to $2.46 billion. Shipments of other product segments such as engineering goods, gems and jewelery and chemicals also declined by 11.65%, 12.84% and 8.2% respectively. Imports during October contracted by 21.15% to $31.12 billion from $39.46 billion a year ago, thus bringing down the trade deficit to $9.76 billion from $13.57 billion in October 2014. Oil imports dipped by 45.31% to $6.85 billion from last year’s $12.5 billion, while non-oil imports reduced by 9.93% to $24.27 billion from $26.95 billion. During April-October 2015-16, oil imports contracted by 42.07% to $54.97 billionfrom $94.9 billion, while non-oil imports registered a marginal decline of 0.89% from the corresponding period of 2014-15 Worried over the current trend of falling exports, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President S C Ralhan said although India’s outbound shipments have performed better than that during September, reaching exports target of $300 billion during 2015-16 looks a far fledged dream. “The only silver lining in the trade data has been the positive performance of 9 out of 30 product group as against 6 out of 30 product groups in September, 2015. Going by the current trend and factoring little improvement, reaching $300 billionin the current fiscal looks a remote possibility,” Ralhan said. In September this year, exports shrank by 24.33% to $21.84 billion from about$28.87 billion in September 2014. Ralhan urged the government to immediately announce Interest Subvention Scheme, revise Duty Drawback Scheme for engineering sector and remove systembottlenecks to encourage domestic industry and revive exports.  

November 17, 2015 |3:17pm IST.