Struggling with the global economic instability and demand crunch due to the ongoing geo-political crises in Europe and West Asia, the exports from Gujarat, the highest exporting state contributing one-third to the total exports from India, registered a 8% decline in total exports between April 2023-December 2023 of FY24.
According to the recent data released by the ministry of commerce and industry , the exports from the state came down to $100 billion from $108.6 billion for the same period in the previous financial year.
As per the data, the situation is the same for Maharashtra, the second-highest exporter state of the country. Maharashtra also registered an 8% slide in the value of its exports to $ 49.4 billion against $ 53.8 billion between April 22- December 22.
Except for Tamil Nadu, whose exports rose by 5.3%, the exports from 4 of the top 5 exporting states including Karnataka (declined by 10%) and Uttar Pradesh (declined by 7.3%) witnessed a downward growth in their total exports for the same period. The exports from Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh stood at $ 19.9 billion and $ 15.1 billion compared to $ 21 billion and $ 16.3 billion, respectively.
Due to this decline in the exports from the top exporting states, The total exports from India dropped down by 4.5% to $ 317.12 billion from $ 332.7 billion in FY23. Furthermore, the poor performance of exports in this financial year resulted in the decline of export share of Gujarat and Maharashtra in India’s total exports to 32.14% and 15.89% from the previous 33.49% and 16.61%, respectively.
Anticipating a slump in Zee’s valuation, a number of brokerages have downgraded the stock in the last two days. Among them was global brokerage firm CLSA which lowered its target price to Rs 198 from Rs 300 after the merger termination was announced on Monday. Citi Research has cut the target price on the stock to Rs 180 from Rs 340 earlier. Elara Capital has reduced the target price to Rs 170 from Rs 340 and downgraded the rating to ‘sell’ on Zee.
Excluding the exports of petroleum products which remained more or less the same, the gems and jewellery industry and the organic and inorganic chemical sector are bearing the biggest of the burns of this global demand crunch and economic instability.
The exports in gems and jewellery declined by 16% to $ 24.31 billion from $ 28.99 billion last year. The exports from the organic and inorganic chemical sectors dropped to $ 20.27 billion from $ 22.96 billion, an 11.7% decline compared to the same period in the previous year.
Despite the poor performance of overall exports from the states and from India, the exports of electronic goods and drugs & pharmaceuticals have performed exceptionally well. The export of electronic goods registered a growth of 22% and stood at $ 20.35 billion against $ 16.67 billion while the export of drugs and pharmaceuticals touched $ 20.40 billion compared to $ 18.84 billion, an 8.2% growth for the period between Apr 23 – Dec 23.