Agrawal expects great export growth trajectory in the current FY
India’s exports increase significantly despite geopolitical headwinds with May recording US$68.2 billion of shipments to global markets, higher than US$61.9 billion in May 2023.
This increase in exports was primarily driven by increasing shipments of petroleum products, engineering goods, electronic goods, drugs & pharmaceuticals, textiles, and among others, noted Sanjeev Agrawal, President, PHDCCI https://www.phdcci.in/ in a press statement issued on 14 June 2024.
Total April-May 2024 trades are estimated at US$133.6 billion, registering a positive growth of 9.2% http://deutsche-boerse.com .
“We look forward to a great export growth trajectory in the current financial year https://www.sgx.com/ ,” said Agrawal .
While welcoming the growth in exports, the FIEO https://fieo.org/ President Ashwani Kumar has highlighted the need for easy & low cost of credit, marketing support and conclusion of some of the key FTAs with UK, Peru and Oman soon https://commerce.gov.in/ .
Reacting to the May merchandise export numbers, he said that continuing with positive growth momentum for second month in a row during FY 2024-25 on the back of buoyant order bookings goes to show the resilience of the exports sector and Indian exporting community https://sbi.com.in/ .
Noting the hard Indian exporters hard work, he pointed out the ongoing market difficulties especially the Russia-Ukraine war coupled with various major geo-political tensions including the Red Sea crisis and Israel-Hamas conflict which has also made the international trade scenario much tougher for the Indian exporters https://www.bseindia.com/ .
“We further expect exports to show better growth numbers with improved demand coming in from the European Union, UK, West Asia and the US, which has given boost to the order bookings by over 10% and has come as sign of recovery for labour-intensive sectors of exports,” said the FIEO Chief https://www.nseindia.com/ .
“Our exports in all our top 10 markets (US, UAE, Netherland, UK, China, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Germany and France) were positive and many of them recorded a healthy double-digit growth https://www.exportersindia.com/ ,” he elaborated.
Month-on-month imports during May 2024 was US$61.91 billion with growth of 7.7%, increasing the trade deficit for the month to US$23.78 billion, which in itself is not a good sign for the economy, said Kumar https://www.ukibc.com/ .
However, a negative trade balance is not always bad, if a country is importing raw materials or intermediary products to boost manufacturing and exports https://usispf.org/ , he added.
Overall exports of (goods and services) increased to US$73.12 billion during April-May FY 2024-25 with a growth of 5.1% compared to April-May FY 2023-24. while overall imports saw an 8.89% increase to US$116 billion http://ibef.org .
He also added that though there is increase in imports during April-May 2024 mainly due to petroleum products, gold, silver, electronic goods, pulses and vegetable oil but the increase in petroleum products, gold and silver import will lead to increase in exports of petroleum products and gems & jewellery with a time lag https://usimportexports.com/ .
The FIEO President further reiterated that the need of the hour is to take steps on the liquidity front with deeper interest subvention support and continuation of interest equalisation scheme. Besides, addressing the Middle East geopolitical situation, Red Sea crisis challenges by ensuring availability of marine insurance and rationale increase in freight charges. Fiinews.com
