The Hindu Business Line : $160-b export target too ambitious: Survey

New Delhi April 30 The target of $160 billion for exports for 2007-2008 set by the Government is too ambitious to achieve with the sharp rise in rupee value and emerging slowdown of the global economy, according to 79 per cent respondents to a survey conducted among exporters.

The appreciating rupee is a matter of concern for 59 per cent of exporters, who wanted intervention of the RBI, according to the Assocham survey. The appreciating rupee is making exports uncompetitive.

Eighty per cent of exporters felt that further hardening of the rupee might lead to slower growth in their respective sectors. The RBI Annual Policy 2007-08 does not address the problem faced by exporters, said the survey.

Another survey, by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, notes that many of the exporters particularly in IT, textiles and manufacturing have incurred losses since a drastic appreciation of the Rupee.

Indian exporters are likely to reduce the dollar-denominated trade volume and will increasingly switch over to currencies like yen, euro and pound for transacting their trade, according to the survey.

The respondents also felt that the rupee was undervalued to some extent and a measure of shoring up of its value may be the considered by RBI. The respondents maintained that losses were mainly by the exporters belonging to the small, medium and tiny sector since they were not savvy about the different hedging mechanisms to ward off the currency volatility. It is also necessary to spread awareness of these hedging mechanisms among all the exporters since such `currency shocks' would become more frequent when the Rupee and the Indian economy get more integrated with the global market.