Exports grow by 18% in Nov to $13.2 billion

India's exports grew over 18 per cent to touch $13.2 billion in November, reversing the downtrend seen in the past 13 months in a row due to shrinking in demand in major western markets.

However, these are early days to rejoice because the growth is attributed to base effect. "There is no great shift in demand, it (growth) is because of base effect," Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar told reporters here.

Expressing happiness that exports have turned around, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said the turnaround is an "indication of exporters' resilience and positive impact of the stimulus extended by the government," FIEO President A Shakthivel said.

He hoped that government would continue with the "interest subvention (subsidy) for exports as interest rates are set to move northward".

Gems and jewellery grew over 40 per cent to $2.15 billion in the month under study. Readymade garment shipments grew to $727 million from $686 million in the same month a year ago. Man-made fibre and petroleum products also contributed to the turnaround story.

However for April-November period of the fiscal, exports dropped to $104.25 billion from $134.2 billion in the same period a year ago.

Exports started falling in October last year following deepening of global financial crisis post-Lehman collapse. This coupled with recession in developed markets saw India's exports taking a severe beating.

The impact of falling demand felt the maximum in May this with exports declining a steep 39 per cent.

However, October figures had given some indications that falling trend could be halted soon. Though exports fell in October as well, pace of decline slowed down to single digit at 6.6 per cent, which was also attributed to base effect.

Analysts had said there was an uptick in revival of some demand in the overseas markets and hoped that the forthcoming Christmas festivities would further push Indian exports. The US and other major markets coming out of the recession in July-September quarter also augured well, they had said.