NEW DELHI: India’s merchandise export is expected to cross $300 billion during the current fiscal, said a top official of Federation of India Export Organisations (FIEO). FIEO expects India’s shipments for fiscal 2016-17 to close at $272 billion against $262 billion in the previous year – a growth of 3-4%. This fiscal, the exporters’ body expects manufacturing shipments to be in the region of $300-310 billion and services to be between $175 billion and $180 billion
“This (export) growth for 2016-17 is encouraging as global trade is down and many economies are still in red,” said Ajay Sahai, Director General & CEO, FIEO. “China’s February figure shows that exports have declined. The Indian exports figures are not only of low base, but they are nowhere near our potential. “We had already touched $300 billion in exports in the past and from here on we should look at more promising exports. We expect the current year exports shipment to be between $300 billion and $310 billion.” Though last year’s export growth was minimal, Mr. Sahai said one must look at the outcome in the context of global scenario. “If you look at it in isolation, I may not be happy. But, if you look how my competitors have performed and how the world economy has moved, I am happy. “But, we have to give a greater push to exports, because I am not looking at foreign exchange realisation alone, I am looking at exports and economic activity which creates employment generation. Sectors such as handicrafts can be pushed only through exports,” he said. Asked whether it was possible to reach an exports target of $900 billion by 2019-20, Mr. Sahai said: “During the current year, we might touch $480 billion. To reach the target, we should have a compounded growth of 29%.”
