While the country is not yet ?out of the woods,? India needs to shift its focus to the Asian nations from traditional markets like Europe and North America in order to counter trade imbalance, said Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee.
?I have little apprehension…current account deficit has increased. Trade imbalance has also increased because of shortage of exports, not in absolute terms but in comparison to imports ? Mukherjee said.
According to commerce ministry estimates, India?s trade deficit has widened to $13.03 billion in August. Oil imports have increased by 12.4% in August to $7.79 billion against $6.94 billion in August last year while non-oil imports went up by 41.1% to $21.88 billion against $15.51 billion during the corresponding month last year.
Meanwhile, India?s export has grown by 22.5% in August to $16.64 billion against $13.58 billion during the same month last year. ?We have to diversify our exports. Up till now most of our exports were headed towards Europe, North America and Japan. Now we have to look more towards our eastern neighbours,? he said.
Present at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the financial hub at Jyoti Basu Nagar (formerly known as Newtown Rajarhat), Mukherjee stressed on building infrastructure facilities to foster double digit growth of the economy . ?Double digit growth is not a fancy statistical figure but it is part of our effort towards national rebuilding and reconstruction. To me double digit growth means creation of more jobs, income and wealth,? Mukherjee said.