NEW DELHI: India’s exports contracted a steep 21.06 percent in March, the most in 67 months. This pulled down overall exports in 2014-15 by 1.23 percent, the second decline in three years, as petroleum prices softened and demand abroad remained lacklustre.
In the second half of 2014-15, exports fell every month except in November.
For March, exports stood at $23.95 billion, against $30.34 billion a year earlier, showed official figures released on Friday. Before this, the steepest fall was in August 2009-10, when exports had contracted 23.59 percent.
For 2014-15, merchandise exports declined to $310.53 billion from $314.41 billion in 2013-14. The government had set a target of $340 billion for 2014-15, 8.7 percent higher than the actual figure.
“Though exports have contracted for a whole year earlier, the fall in 2014-15 is the biggest in terms of the target set by the government,” said Soumya Kanti Ghosh, chief economic advisor, State Bank of India.
According to data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, imports fell 13.44 percent to $35.74 billion in March this year from $41.29 billion in March 2014. For 2014-15, overall imports contracted 0.59 percent to $447.54 billion from $450.21 billion in 2013-14.
Still, gold imports surged 93.86 percent to $4.98 billion. A YES Bank analysis attributed this to stocking for the coming festive season, especially ‘Akshaya Tritiya’ on April 21. In March, gold prices fell 3.8 percent month-on-month.
Silver imports rose 193.73 percent in March.
The trade deficit widened to a four-month high of $11.79 billion in March from $6.85 billion in February and $10.95 billion in March last year. This might have some impact on the country’s current account deficit for the March quarter.
For 2014-15, the deficit increased to $137.01 billion from $135.8 billion in 2013-14. Aditi Nayar, senior economist, ICRA, said the trade deficit widened on account of a sharper-than-anticipated and fairly broad-based contraction in merchandise exports.
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