Meagre rise in exports

With growing economic uncertainty in the global markets, particularly the U.S. and Europe, India's exports have seen consistent decline since mid-2011. The latest government data show that in February this year exports stood at $24.6 billion, a growth of 4.2 per cent year-on-year, but slower than the previous months. After July, 2011, when 82 per cent export growth was clocked, it has been declining since then — 44.25 per cent in August, 36.36 per cent in September, 10.8 per cent in October, 3.8 per cent in November, 6.7 per cent in December, 2011, 10 per cent in January. However, the cumulative value of exports in the current fiscal so far (April-February 2011-12) was $267.4 billion as against $220.24 billion, a growth of 21.42 per cent over last fiscal. “We are inching towards our export target of $300 billion for 2011-12 but may fell short of it and reach $290 billion with an expected average growth of 20 per cent,” said Federation of Indian Export Organisations President Rafeeque Ahmed. Imports also went up by over 20 per cent to $39.81 billion in February, 2012, while the cumulative value of imports for the 11-month period was $434.15 billion, a growth of 29.4 per cent. As a result, the trade deficit stood at $166.7 billion. Keywords: Indian exports, Indian economy, industrial sector