The GST Council's efforts to resolve exporters' woes on refunds seem to have started yielding results. Exports grew 30.55 per cent in November, a month after it contracted 1.1 per cent, also due to the low base effect and rising petroleum prices. In fact, petroleum products, along with engineering goods, gems and jewellery, and chemicals, drove nearly 80 per cent of the rise in merchandise exports.
The outbound shipment stood at $26.19 billion in November against $20.06 billion a year ago. To put things in context, exports had declined by 24.43 per cent in November 2016, the steepest that year.