The government today said the country's exports will 'comfortably' reach $280-300 billion by the end of the current fiscal despite economic uncertainty in Europe and the US.
During the April-December period, India's exports aggregated to $217.6 billion, a year-on-year growth of 25.8%, thanks to a surge witnessed in the early months of the fiscal.
"We will be comfortably (reaching) at the mid part of $280-300 billion," Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya Scindia told reporters here at a Ficci function.
He also said India imports about 70% of its oil requirement and 50% of its gas requirement.
A larger increase in imports in comparison to exports pushed up the country's trade deficit to $133.3 billion during the first nine months this fiscal.
"The problem in India is imports are fairly inelastic," he said.
Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar has forecast that the trade deficit will touch $160 billion by the end of this fiscal.
The minister exuded confidence that the exports target of $500 billion by 2013-14 will be achieved. However, Khullar had yesterday said if demand does not improve in Europe and the US in the coming months, it will be difficult to achieve this target.
