The Union government has pressed pause on setting any exports target for the financial year 2023-24 considering the volatility and weakness in the global economy, which has been ravaged by the impact of the Russian war and high inflation, impacting discretionary spending.
Amid the uncertainties, the government has decided to evaluate the situation on the ground and take a pragmatic view.
Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, on Sunday declined to announce any exports target for the current year.
“It will not be proper to give FY24 exports target now and we do not want to give any absurd number. Due to the ongoing war, the economies of several countries have become weak and discretionary spending has come down,” the Minister said.
“So in the next five months, we will be taking delegations of different export sectors to several countries to understand the situation on the ground and then to set our exports target. We will be organising buyer-seller meets and exhibitions to push our exports.”
In FY23, despite the adverse conditions, India had clocked record merchandise and service exports of $770 billion. In the previous two years, exports were to the tune of $676 billion and $500 billion respectively, the Minister said.
Mr. Goyal was speaking at an exports awards function organised by the Gem and Jewellery Exports Promotion Council in Mumbai. He said the free trade agreements with the UAE and Australia had immensely helped the exporters and the forthcoming ones would also increase the exports volume.
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