Sluggishness in Western economies led to a 10.78% decline in India’s exports in September ? a continuous fall for five months.
Exports stood at $23.69 billion compared with $26.56 billion in the year ago period. Imports, however, jumped 5.09%, after four months of steep fall taking the trade deficit to $18.08 billion.
Oil imports during September increased 30.74% to $14.09 billion from $10.77 billion in the corresponding period last year, said the commerce ministry in a statement. The data was released in the absence of The contraction in global demand and deceleration in manufacturing are the primary reasons for decline in exports. Exports will soon start picking up as the global situation is slowly improving and the initiatives taken in the Foreign Trade Policy will also help to bring fruitful results,? said Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) president Rafeeque Ahmed.
For the cumulative April-September period, exports dipped by 6.79% to $ 143.6 billion from $ 154.1 billion in the same period last year. Imports during the first half of the fiscal contracted by 4.36% to $ 232.92 billion. Trade deficit during the period stood at $ 89.25 billion from $ 89.39 billion in April-September 2011.
