India’s merchandise exports held steady at $33 billion in August

In a press briefing, Commerce Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam on September 3, 2022 said that the export of goods for the month of August is flat at $33 billion, which is at the same level as last year.

Mr. Subrahmanyam said that services exports reached $95 billion in the first four months of 2022-23, an increase of $26 billion over last year and will break the record this year.

The commerce secretary said, “Indian exports are stagnant amid the global adversity and based on conservative estimates it will cross $750 billion this year.”

Mr. Subrahmanyam said, “Services exports will cross $300 billion and goods exports will cross $450 billion at a lower limit. Our own estimate for the year is $470 billion.”

He said some sectors that performed exceptionally well in August such as electronic goods, up 50%, rice up 42% and chemicals up 14%.

He further added, “There is some concern about Christmas orders. Exporters’ order books are full but there are cases where buyers are asking not to ship the shipments.”

Mr. Subrahmanyam said, “What is the reason for the flat growth in exports? To control inflation, we have imposed some restrictions. Wheat has almost gone into the negative list, steel and iron pellets were also banned for export. Iron ore was banned last year.”

“Imports in August are $61.68 billion, up 37 percent from a year ago. Imports in the five months of the year are $318 billion,” the commerce secretary said.

“Coal and petroleum imports are increasing imports but overall growth in imports is indicative of healthy demand in the economy as 25% of our imports are for consumer goods, while 75% are for raw materials etc.,” he said.

Mr. Subrahmanyam said, “If you look at it as a whole, the trade deficit for the full year is likely to be $160-180 billion. With remittances of $90 billion, we expect the current account deficit to be 3%. of GDP, which is not bad but something that we need to be careful about. But the current primary concern is inflation and some of the export and import front as a result of the measures to pacify the price rise There will be challenges.”

“India’s exports to China declined by 35% in the first five months of 2022-23 to $6.8 billion from $10.6 billion last year,” the commerce secretary said.

He further said, “Gold imports fell 47 per cent to $3.5 billion in August from $6.7 billion a year ago. For the full year so far, gold imports are down 12.84% and it shows that the measures taken by the government to curb gold imports are working. A part of gold imports are definitely for jewelery which is re-exported”

Mr. Subrahmanyam concluded “Worst case scenario, merchandising exports will be $450 billion. We want the flat export trend to change and measures to boost exports will be taken. India will also unveil a new foreign trade policy on 30 September.” Which will boost exports.