NEW DELHI: After months of fall, India’s exports looked to be stabilising. In May, outward shipments declined marginally in dollar terms, but posted a small increase in rupees, suggesting that the worst may be over. Merchandise exports fell 0.79% from a year ago, the smallest decline in 18 months, to $22.17 billion, while imports shrank 13.16%, the slowest since June last year. May imports were $28.44 billion.
In rupee terms, exports were up 4.04% at Rs 1.48 lakh crore. The trade deficit narrowed to $6.3 billion in May from $10.4 billion, because of the sharp fall in imports even as exports stabilised. “The decline in exports have largely been arrested and non-oil exports have turned positive after a long gap,” said SC Ralhan, president of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations.
“Exports are all set to take off from here onwards and we can look for double-digit growth from October onwards which may pave the way for reaching $300 billion in the current fiscal (year).” Oil imports added up to $5.94 billion, 30.5% lower than a year earlier, whereas non-oil imports dropped 7.1% to $22.5 billion. Gold imports fell 39% to $1.47 billion.
Non-oil, non-gold imports, seen as a measure of domestic demand, fell 3.2% to $21.1billion. Iron ore showed the highest increase in exports, with an eightfold rise. India’s full-year exports for 2015-16 had settled at $261.1 billion, down 15.85% from 2014-15. Data released by the commerce and industry ministry showed that 17 out of 30 export sectors registered a fall in outward shipments.
India’s services exports remained almost flat at $12.91 billion in April 2016, Reserve Bank data showed. Services exports in April 2015 were $13.01billion. Similarly, services imports were steady at $7.18 billion in April as against $7.32 billion a year earlier. Ralhan added that increasing exports to China will help in bridging the rising trade deficit with China.
