India’s exports shrank 11.19 per cent to $23.88 billion in January. Exports of petroleum products, oil meals, electronic goods and iron ore continued to decline, according to the official release. Exports had contracted in December too.
Led by the fall in oil imports, total imports fell 11.39 per cent to $32.20 billion during the month. Gold imports, however, bucked the trend and rose 8.13 per cent to $1.55 billion owing to the lifting of import curbs.
Imports of electrical and non-electrical machinery, project goods and key inputs such as precious and semi-precious stone, ferrous metal, organic and inorganic chemicals recorded negative growth raising apprehensions about the recovery in the manufacturing sector.
The trade deficit narrowed to $8.32 billion on slowing imports.
For the ten-month period from April, 2014, to January, 2015, cumulative exports growth was modest at 2.44 per cent compared to the same period last year. Total exports during this period were $265.03 billion. Imports during April-January period were also just 2.17 per cent higher at $383.41 billion.
The trade deficit for the ten-month period at $118.37 billion was marginally higher than that in the same period last year ($116.53 billion).
Federation of Indian Export Organisations President M. Rafeeque Ahmed said in a statement that with exports slowdown worsening in the month of January, India was unlikely to achieve the export target of $340 billion for 2014-15.
“In the given scenario, we would be happy, if we touch export of $325 billion in this fiscal,” he said.
Mr. Ahmed also said that since 2011-12 or over the last four years, exports have hovered around $300 billion, which suggests the government must introduce radical changes in the Union Budget and the Foreign Trade Policy to support the export sector in view of emerging global scenario.
