| Imports have also grown by 44.95 per cent to $7.2 billion from $ 4.97 billion in the corresponding period. Trade deficit has widened by 54.5 per cent to $ 1.7 billion from $ 1.1 billion in December 2002. |
| Commerce and Industry minister Arun Jaitley said today that India's export growth in 2003-04 was now expected to touch 14 to 15 per cent as against the targeted 12 per cent. |
| The general expectation on export growth before the December figures were released, was that despite the recovering world economy, Indian export growth was unlikely to exceed 10 per cent. The rising value of the rupee vis-a-vis the dollar was expected to dampen export growth to some extent. |
| The December figures alone have pushed up the average export growth in April to December 2003 to 13.48 per cent. The value of exports in this period was $42.4 billion. The average export growth in the first nine months (April-November) of 2003 was 8.81 per cent. |
| Subir Gokarn, Crisil's chief economist, said one possible interpretation to these figures is that India's export basket is not as price sensitive as has been assumed so far. |
| Also, the rupee had stabilised at around 45-46 to a dollar by December and the improved export performance could have something to do with this, he added. |
| Imports have averaged a growth of 24.86 per cent in the first nine months of the fiscal and were valued at $ 55 billion. |
| Oil imports, at $14.6 billion, were 14.29 per cent higher than $12.8 billion in the corresponding period in 2002-03. Non-oil imports rose by 29.17 per cent from $31.3 billion to $40.5 billion. |
| The trade deficit for April to December 2003-04 was estimated at $12.6 billion, up from $6.7 billion in the corresponding period last year. |
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