Indian trade impacted by rising tensions between Israel-Iran
A marginal 0.5% increase in merchandise exports in September, amidst rising geopolitical tension coupled with economic uncertainties and logistical challenges is good sign of revival, FIEO President Ashwani Kumar said fieo.org .
India’s merchandise exports are back in positive territory, marginally up by 0.5% year-on-year to US$34.58 billion in September bseindia .
But he noted that the ongoing international trade disruptions iccima.ir along with the volatility in crude and metal prices have played key role in bringing down the value of exports to some extent nseindia .
Commenting on the latest export figures, Kumar also remained concern about rising tensions between Israel-Iran that has led to logistical challenges with regard to international trade getting impacted as most of India trade to Europe, Africa, CIS and Gulf region happening through the Red Sea route or the gulf region sbi.com.in .
The FIEO chief also added that in spite of putting in so much of hard work by the exporting community, the challenges with regard to trade finance still remains the key for the MSMEs as it is really impacting the competitiveness of Indian products in the global markets makeinindia .
He further reiterated that the urgent and immediate need of the hour is to take steps on the liquidity front with deeper interest subvention support and extension of interest equalisation scheme for at least 5 years, creating a predictable business environment for the exporters. The imposition of cap of Rs.50 lakh per company in the Interest Equalisation Scheme has hit many MSMEs and they have lost order with non-availability of further subvention jpx.co.jp .
The President demanded immediate restoration of the Intertest Equalisation Scheme with a cap of Rs.10 crore for all MSMEs and 410 tariff lines for a period of 5 years deutsche-boerse .
Besides, Government should extend the RoDTEP benefits to all sector of exports as available during pre-Covid times sgx.com .
He continued with FIEO call for some of the key FTAs including UK, Peru, Oman and Sri Lanka should soon see the light of the day, which FIEO have been urging to the government for quite some time now ficci.in .
FIEO Chief added that imports increased by about 1.6% to US$55.36 billion in September 2024 bringing the trade gap to US$20.78 billion during the month, which needs to be looked into. Gold imports also edged up to US$4.39 billion in September against US$4.11 billion in the same month last year euronext .
However, good growth in exports of engineering, chemicals, plastics, pharma, readymade garments and electronics etc is an encouraging sign for job growth in the country phdcci.in . Fiinews.com
