 "Exports fall for 17th month in April")
India’s merchandise exports fell in April for a 17th month, and at a sharper pace than in March.
The earlier longest declining streak was for nine months, during the 2008-09 global financial meltdown. The decline in April was 6.74 per cent, against 5.47 per cent in March, showed data issued by the government on Friday. Exports contracted to $20.6 billion in April, against $22.05 bn in April 2015.
The earlier growth was in November 2014, up 7.27 per cent year-on-year.
Beside global slowdown, the dip is attributed to falling commodity prices and sluggishness in the Chinese economy, among others.
Imports declined 23.1 per cent to $25.4 bn in April against the year-ago period, when it was $33 bn. “Over $1 billion of savings in the import bill were on account of coal, iron & steel and fertiliser, due to high domestic production and inventories, as well as measures such as the minimum import price and safeguard duties,” said Aditi Nayar, senior economist, ICRA.
As a result, the trade deficit in April fell to its lowest level in a little over five years, to $4.8 bn from $5.1 bn in March.
Import of crude oil continued its long decline, falling 24 per cent in April to $5.65 bn against $7.4 bn a year before. Gold imports continued to fall by a large margin, going down 60.5 per cent to $1.2 bn against $3.1 bn a year before. Prices of the yellow metal had fallen by 80.6 per cent in March.
Non-oil and non-gold imports, taken as a proxy for an indicator of industrial demand, declined 17.6 per cent to $18.5 bn in April from $22.5 bn a year before. It had fallen 4.4 per cent in March. This implies industrial recovery might take a while — the Index of Industrial Production was almost flat in March.
Our major export products continued to shrink in April, with petroleum products falling 28.1 per cent, followed by engineering goods (minus 18.9 per cent). “Apart from the huge drop, the cost of raw material has gone up, thanks to restrictive measures on crucial imports which go into the export products,” said T S Bhasin, chairman of the Engineering Export Promotion Council. The fall in export of readymade textiles also accelerated, to 8.1 per cent.
However, gems and jewellery export increased 17.2 per cent, after March’s rise of 4.7 per cent. The one per cent excise duty imposed on the product in the Union Budget had seen manufacturers shutting shop in April.
Among major categories, export of 14 out of 30 went up as against 13 in March. The Federation of Indian Export Organisations said exports might turn around from June.
Cumulative export for 2015-16 was $261 bn, about 15.9 per cent less than the $310 bn the previous financial year.
