Non-Oil Import Growth Slumps To 1%
India registered one of its worst trade performances in recent years in 1996-97, with exports increasing by just 4.01 per cent while import growth averaged 6 per cent. Significantly, non-oil imports increased by a mere 1 per cent .
The countrys export growth in the last fiscal was the lowest since 1992-93, when exports grew at 3.8 per cent. Exports had grown by 21.4 per cent in fiscal 1995 and 18.3 per cent in financial 1994.
The 4.01 per cent rate of growth fell far short of the ambitious target of 20 per cent. In monetary terms, total exports amounted to $33 billion, against a target of $38 billion.
The slowdown in export growth resulted in an increase in the trade deficit from $4.5 billion in 1995-96 to $ 5.4 billion last year, despite a sharp slowdown in imports.
The deficit has exceeded the commerce ministrys estimate of $5 billion, which was announced by the commerce secretary at a press conference immediately after the announcement of the new Export-Import policy on March 31.
This figure had, however, been exceeded in February itself when the trade deficit touched $5.25 billion. At the beginning of the year, the commerce ministry had estimated that the deficit would be close to $ 4.5 billion.
Import growth during 1996-97 averaged 6 per cent, with oil imports growing by 34 per cent. In contrast, non-oil imports grew by just 1 per cent.
Exports worth $3.3 billion in March 1997 were the highest notched up in a single month in the whole of fiscal 1996. However, even this figure is estimated to be 5.69 per cent lower than the level of $3.5 billion achieved in March 1996.
Imports during March 1997 amounted to $3.46 billion, representing a growth of 1.5 per cent over March 1996.
The extremely low export growth of 4 per cent has come as a shock even to commerce ministry officials, who had estimated that export growth would pick up to touch double digits by the end of the year.
However, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) president Ramu S Deora had maintained that export growth would not cross five per cent in 1996-97.