The government expects India’s merchandise exports to grow 7.3% to $325
billion in 2018-19, lower than 9.8% clocked in 2017-18 on the back of muted
growth of traditional exports such as gems and jewellery, farm and
engineering, liquidity crunch, and global factors.
“Many sectors including marine, agriculture, gems & jewellery are doing
poorly. Engineering exports have been impacted due to expensive domestic
steel and rubber,” said an official who attended a meeting that the commerce
department had with exporters and export promotion councils on Tuesday
in the wake of slowing growth of various exporting sectors.
India’s exports were $303 billion in 2017-18.
As per an official statement, the meeting was held to “discuss various issues
being faced by exporters and examine ways by which India’s merchandise
exports may reach $325 billion by March 2019”.
“Our merchandise exports have been growing since 2016-17 for almost three
years and are likely to reach a new peak in 2018-19,” the department said in
the statement.
In the April to December period of 2018-19, merchandise exports have grown
by about 10% on year.
“Liquidity is the biggest concern of exporters along with their money being
blocked due to Goods and Services Tax. Moreover, with China frontloading
its exports recently and the US showdown that eroded consumer confidence,
Indian exporters have been adversely impacted,” said another person who
attended the meeting.
Declining exports of labour intensive products including leather, gems and
jewellery, man-made yarn, and pharmaceuticals had pulled down the overall
growth of outward shipments from the country in December to 0.34% at
$27.9 billion. 17 out of 30 sectors had showed a decline in exports in
December.
“This target may not be easy but it is doable. However, the global slowdown
and weakening commodity prices will play out,” the person said.
India recorded growth of 13.31% in overall exports (merchandise and
services combined) in 2017-18 over the same period last year. Overall exports
were $498.61 billion in 2017-18 of which $303.53 billion was from
merchandise exports.
Source: The Economic Times, India Wednesday, 06 February 2019