Exports fall for 7th straight month

Govt to announce incentives next week

India’s exports fell over 4 per cent in November but the continuous rise in crude oil purchases from overseas markets sent imports soaring, resulting in a trade deficit of over $19 billion in a single month.

A worried government said, it will announce new package for boosting exports during next week as the trade performance has been much lowered than what was expected earlier. The government had set an exports target of $360 billion at the start of this year, but that looks difficult to achieve.

Centre may come out with interest subsidy and other incentives for the sectors that are lagging behind, being impacted by the global slowdown.

“Hopefully the government is now coming out with a new package for boosting exports in the last quarter which the commerce minister will be announcing towards the end of the week," Commerce Secretary S R Rao told reporters here.

He, however, said that there was a slight arrest in export contraction though the exports were still experiencing a slump.

India’s exports stood at $23.2 billion in November, while the imports grew to $41.5  billion. This
was mainly due to a continuous rise in crude imports. Surprisingly gold imports have shown a negative growth of late. Oil imports in November rose 16.7 per cent on-year to $14.5 billion.

Non-oil imports grew by 1.5 per cent to $27 billion. During April-November 2012, oil imports grew 10.8 per cent to $110 billion. However, non-oil imports during the period dipped by 7 per cent on-year to $208.6 billion. Crude oil imports have also been affecting India’s current account balance for quite some now. 

While imports of petroleum products and chemicals grew during the period, imports of gold and silver, machinery and electronics registered a negative growth.

These five sectors contribute about 62 per cent in the country's total imports. As far as the exports are concerned, the slowing demand in western nations can be held responsible, the secretary said. Fall in exports is also responsible for the widening fiscal deficit.