India’s exports fell by 28 per cent in July, for the tenth month in a row, due to the ongoing global downturn, Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar said today.
Exports in the same month of the last fiscal were $18.4 billion. After growing handsomely by over 30 per cent in the first half of 2008-09, exports took a downward slide in October.
Overseas sales in June this year too had contracted by 27.7 per cent to $12.81 billion from $17.73 billion in the same period last year.
In July 2009, the imports also dipped by about 37 per cent, Khullar told reporters after the announcement of the Foreign Trade Policy. Imports are contracting since January. The decline in June was 29.3 per cent.
The detailed provisional estimates of exports and imports for July would be announced in the first week of September.
In the FTP, the government has provided sops like tax benefits for 100 per cent export-oriented units and duty refund scheme.
An export target of $200 billion for next fiscal has been set by the government, a feat that it failed to achieve in 2008-09 due to a slump in global demand in the face of financial crisis.
