Indian exports will fall short of the $325 billion target envisaged in the current fiscal though it would be more than what was achieved in the last financial year, said Anand Sharma, Commerce and Industry Minister.

“We (will) fall short but we will do better. Definitely much better than last year and we will be bring down the trade account deficit substantially,” Sharma told PTI.

For the April-February period, the country’s merchandise exports were up 4.79 per cent to $282.7 billion. Imports during the 11-month period fell 8.65 per cent to $410.86 billion. The trade deficit during this period was $128 billion.

Federation of Indian Exports Organisation (FIEO) President Rafeeque Ahmed has said that the exports during the current financial year will touch about $312-315 billion.

Exporters said that besides global slowdown, domestic factors like declining manufacturing growth and too have impacted the exports growth.

The apex exporters body have suggested the government to fix exports target at least for next five years and announce some major policy decisions in the forthcoming Foreign Trade Policy for 2014-19 to boost shipments.

Hopes on rate cut

Sharma is hopeful the Reserve Bank of India will cut interest rates to boost growth, taking into account declining inflation.

“We hope that they will factor this in,” Sharma told PTI when asked whether the RBI would reduce interest rates in view of softening inflation.

The RBI’s next Monetary Policy Statement is scheduled on April 1. The central bank increased a key interest rate to 8 per cent from 7.75 per cent at its previous monetary policy review on January 28.

The annual rate of inflation, based on the monthly wholesale price index, stood at 4.68 per cent in February, slipping below 5 per cent for the first time in nine months as onion and potato prices eased.

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