The country’s export value has also declined in January for the third consecutive month.
Why India’s exports are declining
India’s exports fell 2.38 percent to Rs 3.17 lakh crore last month, the Union Commerce Ministry said.
At the same time, imports rose 10.28 percent to Rs 5.17 lakh crore. This was mainly due to an increase in gold imports.
Growth
The trade deficit, which indicates the difference between exports and imports, widened to Rs 2 lakh crore last month. It was Rs 1.91 lakh crore in December and Rs 1.44 lakh crore in January last year.
Exports of key sectors including petroleum and chemicals fell significantly last month. Exports of textiles, electronics, engineering, rice and marine products increased.
Apart from these, gold imports, which were Rs 16,500 crore in January last year, increased to Rs 23,300 crore in January this year.
During the period from April last year to January this year, the country’s total exports grew by 1.39 percent and imports by 7.43 percent.
The country’s services sector exports were estimated to be Rs 3.35 lakh crore last month. At the same time, imports were reported to be Rs 1.59 lakh crore. The Reserve Bank will soon release official data on services sector trade.
Meanwhile, Union Commerce Secretary Sunil Bartal has said that India’s goods and services exports are doing well in the context of global economic uncertainty.
Significant increase
Last month, goods exports to the US rose by 39 percent to Rs 73,400 crore. During the same period, imports from the country increased by 33.46 percent to Rs 31,000 crore.
In the current fiscal year ending last January, Indian exports to the US grew by 8.95 percent.
It is noteworthy that the US is one of the few countries with which India has a trade surplus. The two countries have decided to increase bilateral trade to 500 billion US dollars, or approximately 43.50 lakh crore rupees, by 2030.
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