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India's goods exports posted a record monthly growth of 60.29 per cent (year-on-year) to $ 34.45 billion pushed by sectors such as engineering goods, electronics, petroleum products, gems & jewellery, and pharmaceuticals.
In the fiscal year April-March 2021, however, exports declined by 7.26 per cent to $290.63 billion compared to the previous fiscal as Covid-19 disruptions slowed down production and demand worldwide.
Imports during the month increased 53.74 per cent to $48.38 billion, with surges in items such as gold, machinery, chemicals, plastics and electronics, resulting in the trade deficit widening to $13.93 billion compared to $9.98 billion in the previous fiscal, per quick estimates released by the Commerce & Industry Ministry.
Total imports in April-March 2020-21 declined 18.02 per cent to $389.18 billion with trade deficit narrowing to $98.56 billion compared to $161.35 billion the previous fiscal.
“The export performance in the fourth quarter has lifted up the overall export scenario of the country. During January-March 2021, export have grown by about 19 per cent, over the corresponding period of the previous year, $89.83 billion. The fourth quarter export performance was driven by non-oil, non-gold exports, which grew by nearly 25 per cent,” said Prahalathan Iyer, Chief General Manager, Research & Analysis, India Exim Bank.
The sharp rise in exports has been mainly on account of 28 out of 30 major product groups of exports showing either a very impressive triple digit growth or high double digit growth defying all the odds during these difficult times,” said S K Saraf, President, Fieo.
Fieo urged the government to address some of the key issues including announcement of the new Foreign Trade Policy soon after September, 2021, ensuring adequate availability of containers and releasing of the required funds for new incentive scheme RoDTEP (also the pending payments under MEIS), bringing about clarity on SEIS benefits, and continuing seamless refund of IGST.
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