New Delhi:
The country’s merchandise exports have increased by 17.25 percent to reach $39.2 billion in October. In percentage terms, this is the biggest jump in export figures in two years. In the same month a year ago, exports were $33.43 billion. Trade deficit in the month under review stood at $27.14 billion. According to official data released on Thursday, the country’s imports also increased by 3.9 percent to reach $66.34 billion in October, which was $63.86 billion in the same month a year ago. Total imports have increased mainly due to 13.34 percent increase in crude oil imports.
Trade deficit i.e. the difference between imports and exports stood at $27.14 billion in the month under review. This is less than $30.42 billion in the same month last year. However, this is more than $20.78 billion in the month of September this year. Earlier, there was a jump of 30.12 percent in the country’s merchandise exports in June, 2022.
The country’s merchandise exports increased marginally by 0.5 percent to $34.85 billion in the month of September.
According to the data, during the first seven months (April-October) of the current financial year, the country’s exports have increased by 3.18 percent to $252.28 billion and imports have increased by 5.77 percent to $416.93 billion. The trade deficit during this period was 164.65 billion dollars, which was 149.67 billion dollars during April-October last year 2023.
According to the data, service exports during April-October this year were approximately $ 215.98 billion, which was $ 191.97 billion in the same period last year. During the same period, imports stood at $114.57 billion, which was $102.32 billion in April-October a year ago.
Crude oil imports increased to $18.2 billion in October. In the same month last year it was $16.1 billion.
At the same time, during the month under review, the import of gold and silver decreased slightly to $ 7.13 billion and $ 0.33 billion respectively. In October, 2023 it was $ 7.23 billion and $ 1.31 billion respectively.
“It has been a very good month for exports…if this momentum continues, we will cross the $800 billion export (goods and services) mark this year,” Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said.
He said the government’s strategy to focus on six sectors… engineering, electronics, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, plastics and agriculture… along with 20 countries, is yielding positive results.
The share of these 20 countries in total global imports is 60 percent and the share of these six segments in global imports is 67 percent.
The Commerce Ministry has taken steps to increase economic penetration in these countries through market access initiatives, promotion of Brand India, removal of non-tariff barriers and organizing trade promotion programmes.
Barthwal also said that he is holding meetings with Indian embassies abroad to promote exports.
He said, “We are making a strategy to promote exports in these countries and I am confident that with this strategy we will get better results by the end of this year.”
One reason for registering double digit growth in exports in October could be the better Christmas demand.
Ashwini Kumar, President of FIEO (Federation of Indian Export Organization), the title organization of exporters, said that the double digit growth in merchandise exports is definitely an encouraging sign amid global economic uncertainties.
However, he said that due to the increasing tensions between Israel and Iran, there remain persistent logistical challenges in relation to international trade. The reason for this is that most of our trade in Europe, Africa, CIS and the Gulf region is happening through the Red Sea route or the Gulf region.
(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by the NDTV team and is published directly from a syndicated feed.)
