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			<span style="font-size: 12px;">Merchandise shipments are likely to recover slightly in the second quarter of the financial year with a pick-up in demand from the US markets, coupled with depreciation of the rupee, giving the much needed competitive edge to Indian exports.</span></div>
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			&ldquo;This quarter will be much better than the first quarter. Even the period from October till March, we expect a much better demand situation. This is because the US is doing very well. All our forward booking for the upcoming winter season has been quite impressive,&rdquo; said M Rafeeque Ahmed, president, Federation of Indian Export Organisations.</div>
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			In the first quarter, exports fell 1.41 per cent to $72.45 billion (Rs 4.4 lakh crore), compared with $73.49 billion in the corresponding period last year. On the other hand, imports during April-June reached $122.63 billion, up six per cent from $115.7 billion a year ago. Official data for July is expected to be released this week.</div>
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			Ahmed said demand was beginning to look much better in the UK and Germany. This is because Chinese goods have turned costlier, he added. &ldquo;Hence, we are asking our exporters to reduce prices and increase market share. And also, depreciation of the rupee had been somewhat advantageous,&rdquo; Ahmed added.</div>
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			The Apparel Export Promotion Council earlier said garments exports were poised to grow 24 per cent to $16 billion in the current financial year, owing to a rise in demand in American and European markets.&nbsp;</div>
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			Last month, the government announced some measures to propel the shipments, including raising interest subsidy to three percent from two percent covering newer sectors such as handloom, handicraft, toys, carpets, sports goods, processed food, readymade garments, 200 tariff lines in engineering sector and textile sector among others.</div>
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			However, exporters believe these measures will start showing results gradually.</div>
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			Minister of state for commerce and industry D Purandeswari earlier said due to several reasons such as weak industrial output, the Euro zone crisis and subdued global demand the target of achieving exports worth $500 billion in 2013-14 has been revised down to $325 billion.</div>
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Merchandise shipments are likely to recover slightly in the second quarter of the fiscal due to a recovery in demand from the US markets coupled with depreciation of the Rupee giving the much needed competitive edge to Indian exports.

Exports likely to revive in second quarter

In the first quarter the fiscal, exports fell 1.41% to $72.45 billion compared to $73.49 billion in the same period of 2012-13

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