Fall in India’s goods exports continued in January 2016 – the fourteenth consecutive month of decline – with shipments dropping 13.06 per cent to $ 21.07 billion from $24.39 billion as global demand for key products continued to be low.
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When compared to the contraction in overall exports, the fall in non-petroleum exports during April 2015 – January 2016 was lower at (-) 9.6 per cent to $192.4 billion. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has backed an export-focused “Make in India” drive as the path to prosperity.
“The trend of falling exports is in tandem with other major world economies”.
India imported 850 tonnes of gold during January-September period of 2015, as against 650 tonnes in the year-ago period.
Brazils exports outweighed imports in the second week of February, in the second weekly surplus of the month.
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The trade deficit would have been lower had the gold imports not recorded an 85.16 per cent increase in January to $2.91 billion.
Overseas shipments of petroleum products shrank 35.18 per cent to $1.95 billion in January, while that of engineering goods declined 27.6 per cent to $4.98 million.
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For the first 10 months of the current fiscal, cumulative exports declined by 17.65 per cent to $217.67 billion, as against $264.32 billion in April-January period of 2014-15. Basic goods exports dropped 7.1%, with declining sales of iron ore, crude oil, soybeans, soya bran, coffee beans, tobacco leaves and poultry. The trade gap was United States dollars 119.55 billion in April-January 2014-15. “The growth in exports have fallen for US (10.51 per cent), European Union (9.48 per cent) and China (7.01 per cent) for November 2015 over the corresponding period previous year as per WTO statistics”, the Commerce Ministry said in a release.
