"Exports during December increased by four per cent. But for April-December, it is down by about one per cent (compared to same period last year)," he told a group of reporters on the sidelines of an Economic Development Conference here.

Imports during December were less compared to same period last year, he said.Earlier, inaugurating a seminar series at the Swadeshi Mela, Hegde said India would need to diversify its export basket to garner a larger chunk of global trade.

Expressing concern over the dismal export performance during the current financial year, he said export growth was not satisfactory `even this year'.The problem had been compounded by the depression in many countries, which had resulted in world trade growth shrinking by one per cent, Hegde said. Besides traditional items, Indiahad shown its strength in sectors like engineering, electronics and software and more efforts were needed in expanding the export basket, he said.

In the wake of declining export growth and increasing imports, trade deficit during first nine months of 1998-99 surged towards the $7 billion mark to $6.7 billion.

Exports during April-November 1998 slid four per cent to $21.5 billion from $22.36 billion during corresponding period in 1997. Imports during April-November 1998 increased by 9.5 per cent to $28.2 billion against $25.7 billion in the corresponding period in 1997.Speaking after giving away `swarna patra' and `udyog patra' awards at the 14th Economic Development Conference, Hegde said exports growth had been hit due to "bureaucratic bottlenecks, infrastructure obstructions and poor quality of growth".Regretting that no Indian brands had been developed in the overseas market, he said apart from traditional items like coffee and tea India had scope to qualitatively improve export of otheritems.Pointing out to poor infrastructure hitting export growth, he said neglect of this most important aspect had a telling effect on industrial growth also.Hegde said excessive importance and priority given to the public sector units (PSUs) was the `biggest blunder' committed by the previous governments.Indian economy continued to suffer due recurring losses of PSUs and the country should have tread cautiously on this issue, he said."It's (priority for PSUs) an economic decision taken on political consideration and advantage," he said.

The minister also criticised the Congress government's decision to nationalise banks during the 1960s. "Was there a study before that on ramifications of such a decision?" he asked and remarked that though banks were flushed with funds, Indian industry and exporters were unable to get resources.

Hegde said a similar decision on nationalisation of industries was also taken on political considerations.