The industry projected the country’s merchandise exports to reach up to $260 billion in the current financial year, about $50 billion less than that of 2014-15
The Dollar Business Bureau
The country’s inbound shipments, too, contracted by 5.33% in February, thereby bridging the trade deficit gap to $6.5 billion, its lowest since March 2011
India’s merchandise exports fell for the 15
th straight month in February, 5.66% to $20.74 billion, largely due to tepid global demand, fall in petroleum and engineering goods shipments and volatile global currency market.
The country’s inbound shipments, too, contracted by 5.33% in February, thereby bridging the trade deficit gap to $6.5 billion, its lowest since March 2011.
A huge decline in gold imports - from 85% increase in January this year to a decline of 29% in February – contributed significantly to the closing of trade deficit gap.
The cumulative exports during April-February 2015-16 shrank by 16.73% to $238.41 billion as against $286.31 billion during the corresponding months of 2014-15.
“The trend of falling exports is in tandem with other major world economies. The growth in exports has fallen for USA (10.35%), European Union (7.62%) and China (1.67%) for December 2015 over the corresponding period previous year as per WTO statistics,” Ministry of Commerce said a release.
In February, China’s exports shrank by 25.4% - eighth consecutive month of fall in its outbound shipments, according to the Chinese General Administration of Customs.
Expressing concerns over the continuous decline in the country’s merchandise exports, Federation of Indian Export Organisation (FIEO) President S C Ralhan said the future doesn’t seem too bright for the outbound shipments. He said exports will continue to be dragged down due to various domestic and international factors, but we can expect some positive momentum from the last quarter of 2016.
“This is largely on account of low export base in February 2015 which itself was based on 15% decline on year-on-year basis. However, similar decline in imports which too was on a low base has helped us in reducing the trade deficit further but its effect on country’s manufacturing needs to be assessed through sectoral analysis of imports,” Ralhan said.
The president, FIEO projected the country’s merchandise exports to reach up to $260 billion in the current financial year, about $50 billion less than that of 2014-15.
The Commerce Ministry said export of non-petroleum products in February 2016 was valued at $18.90 billion as against $19.43 billion in February 2015, a reduction of 2.69%. While non-petroleum exports during April - February 2016 was valued at $211.31 billion compared to $232.16 billion in the corresponding period in 2015, a reduction of 8.98%.
Despite the decline in February, the industry seems optimistic of a better exports outlook in the coming months. In February, 14 out of 30 sectors registered a positive growth compared to 13 sectors in January 2016.
Some of the shipped products, which registered a sharp decline in January such as fruits & vegetables, dairy and poultry products, meat and chemical, managed to record a positive growth, thus giving a signal that the country’s outbound shipments are heading towards a revival.
March 16, 2016 | 05:20pm IST
to success.