India's goods exports down 21 percent in March

India's merchandise exports in March at $23.95 billion took a major hit and were down 21 percent from the same month of last year, official data showed on Friday.

Goods exports fell in March for the fourth month running.

In the process, the country's trade deficit for March stood at its highest since November last at Rs.$11.87 billion, as against $10.95 billion for the like month of the previous fiscal, as per data released by the commerce ministry.

While the trade deficit was $6.85 billion in February, for the whole year 2014-15 it rose slightly to $137.01 billion as against $135.7 billion a year ago.

March exports were at $23.95 billion as against $30.34 billion a year ago. The March imports were at $35.74 billion as compared to $41.29 billion in the same month a year ago.

For the fiscal 2014-15, imports rose to $447.5 billion, down 0.6 percent year-on-year.

The year's cumulative exports came in at $310.5 billion, which is 1.2 percent lower year-on-year.

Crude oil imports for the fiscal were reported at $138.3 billion, down 16.1 percent year-on-year on the back of a significant softening of international prices.

Fiscal 2014-15 non-oil imports rose to $309 billion, up 8.4 percent year-on-year.

Non-oil imports could pick up this year owing to a recovery in the manufacturing sector.

Europe's share in India's merchandise exports fell to 18.1 percent in the 11 months to February at $51.6 billion, while other regions showed growth in sales.

Commenting on the data, S.C. Ralhan, chairman, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said continuous slowdown in demand in global markets and liquidity problem has in a major way being responsible for the double digit negative growth in exports during the last quarter.

"Most of our factories are working for eight hours against 24 hours earlier as orders from Europe have dried up," Ralhan said.

Almost all major sectors of exports have shown negative growth during the last three months, he added.

"Double-digit decline in exports for three consecutive months is a cause of worry," said A. Didar Singh, secretary general of industry chamber FICCI.

"India's trade deficit widened in March to the highest in last four months", he added.