Global slowdown, protectionism start affecting services exports from India

The services trade surplus widened to $36.39 billion in the first three months of the current financial year against $31.07 billion in the first quarter of the previous year

After impacting merchandise exports, global slowdown and inward-looking policies have also started affecting services sales abroad.

This was substantiated by just a 7.5 per cent rise in services exports at $25.84 billion from India in April, 7.7 per cent at $27.06 billion in May and a mere 3.5 per cent at $27.86 billion in June in the current financial year.

On the other hand, services exports rose 33.2 per cent at $24.05 billion, 40.7 per cent at $25.13 billion and 32.6 per cent at $26.92 billion in these months of the previous financial year, respectively.

In fact, none of the