Jan exports at $20.6 bn, up 32.5%

India’s merchandise exports in January 2011 came down to $20.6 billion, compared to $22.5 billion in December 2010. But year-on-year, exports registered growth of 32.5 per cent from January last year, when it stood at $15.6 billion.

Imports stood at $28.6 billion in January, up 13.1 per cent from the same month last year, Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar said here today while releasing the initial estimates. The official data will be released on March 1.

Total exports for April-January 2011 registered 29.4 per cent year-on-year growth, reaching $184.6 billion, while cumulative imports rose by 17.6 per cent to $273.6 billion.

“This means we are going to end the year with a trade deficit of $105-110 billion and will cross $200 billion in exports,” Khullar said, adding that the import numbers are subject to change.

Trade deficit in January widened to $8 billion compared to $2.6 billion in December, which was the lowest in the last three years. Total trade deficit during April-January was $89 billion.

“Exports loss in the US and EU has been compensated by increasing exports to Asia, Latin America and Africa, besides CIS which is showing better growth than advanced economies where unemployment rate and public debt to GDP have reached alarming proportions,” said Ramu Deora, president, Federation of Indian Export Organisations.

Items like petroleum products, engineering products, electronics, yarn, man-made fibre, readymade garments, gems & jewellery, carpets, petroleum products, drugs & pharmaceuticals and leather recorded robust growth in exports during April-January. However, export rice, fruits and vegetables and iron ore performed poorly in January due to a cursory ban on some of the varieties of these products.

During April-January, import of oil, fertiliser, gold, pearls, edible oil, machinery and others recorded a huge growth. India is expected to soon seal comprehensive bilateral trade and services deals with Japan and Malaysia, resulting in increase of exports to these countries.

Earlier this week, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry provided a relief of Rs 507 crore to 617 products. Last week it also unveiled a series of measures to help reduce the transaction cost of exporters by about Rs 2,100 crore.