Exports up by 11.6% in July, highest rate in almost 2 years

In a rare bright spot in an otherwise struggling economy, exports grew by 11.64 per cent in July, the most in nearly two years, while imports dipped by 6.2 per cent.
The trade deficit was unchanged from USD 12.2 billion in June, putting pressure on the current account deficit and the fluctuating rupee.
While exports soared to USD 25.83 billion in July, imports declined to USD 38.1 billion.
Gold and silver imports, which dipped by 34 per cent to USD 2.9 billion in July from USD 4.4 billion in the same period last year, helped to maintain the trade deficit at the June level.

Commerce Secretary S R Rao expressed hope that recently announced incentives, including a hike in the rate of interest subsidy, would help shipments to grow in the coming months.
"We do hope that these measures would help us in improving our export target performance in the coming months...Continuing interest in Africa, Latin America, Asean and Far East regions should be helping us (in increasing exports)," he told reporters here.

He said the country's exports should be "slightly" better than the previous fiscal when it touched USD 300.6 billion.
During April-July, exports grew by 1.72 per cent to USD 98.2 billion. Imports increased by 2.82 per cent to USD 160.7 billion during the period. The trade deficit during the first four months of this fiscal stood at USD 62.4 billion.

In May and June, shipments were in negative zone. In September 2011, exports were up by over 35 per cent.
India's economic growth fell to a decade's low of 5 per cent in fiscal 2012-13. The CAD touched a historic high of 4.8 per cent of GDP in 2012-13, mainly on account of import of gold and petroleum products. The rupee touched an all time low of 61.81 against the dollar last week.