Business - India;Exports dip 10 % in dollar terms in November

Sujay Mehdudia

Trade deficit for April-November mounts to $84.34 billion

The manufacturing sector has been hit hard because of massive demand slump in the U.S. and Europe.


NEW DELHI: Impacted by the continued global meltdown and slowdown in economic activity, India’s exports continued its downward trend. Exports for the second consecutive month fell by 9.9 per cent in November under the impact of declining consumer demand in the U.S. and other major global markets widening the monthly trade deficit by over $10 billion.

Imports grew by 6.1 p.c.


Official figures released here on Thursday showed that exports had dropped to $11.5 billion in November from $12.7 billion a year ago, while imports grew by 6.1 per cent to $21.5 billion.

However, exports expanded by 12 per cent in rupee terms with the increase in exporters’ realisations due to about 20 per cent decline in the value of the Indian currency against the U.S. dollar in the last few months.

Exports had gone down by 12.1 per cent in October showing a negative trend for the first time in the last five years.

For the April-November period, cumulative exports grew by 19.4 per cent to $119.30 billion.

The growth for the first half of the fiscal was 30.9 per cent. Imports rose by 33 per cent to $203.64 billion.

Difficult times


The trade deficit for the period has mounted to $84.34 billion from $53.19 billion. With the major markets in the world, including the U.S. and several European countries slipping into full-blown recession and showing no signs of revival in the near future, Indian exporters have run into difficult times.

The impact has been visible since October and the present trend seems to be here to stay despite a number of measures announced by the Government to give a new thrust to the export sector.

FIEO’s concern


Reacting to the continued decline in exports, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President, A. Sakthivel said manufacturing sectors such as leather, textile and gems and jewellery have been hit hard because of massive demand slump in the U.S. and Europe. He said export growth was likely to remain in the negative territory for the next few months.