India's export growth slips to 2.35 per cent in August

Adding further pressure to the government’s effort to revive the economy, India's export growth slipped to 2.35 per cent at $26.95 billion in August, while the numbers are five month low they have taken the trade deficit to four month high of to $10.83 billion, as imports of gold surged 176 percent after policy makers eased shipment curbs. Gold imports have jumped significantly to $2.03 billion from $738.7 million a year ago, while trade deficit during the five months has reached $ 56.15 billion, lower than $ 70.6 billion in the year-ago period.

As per the data released by Ministry of Commerce and Industry, exports have been showing continuous downtrend in May, June and July, registering a growth of 12.4 per cent, 10.22 per cent, and 7.33 per cent respectively. Restrictions on gold imports led to decline in gems and jewellery exports by 10.31 percent to $3.23 billion in August, while shipments of electronic goods declined by 17.67 percent to $547 million. The other exporting sectors which recorded negative growth in August were tea, coffee, rice, tobacco, spices, oil meals, iron ore and petroleum products. However, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and engineering exports registered a growth of 7 percent, 2.66 percent and 22.2 percent respectively.Exporters body FIEO attributed the poor performance of exports to slowdown in European markets.

As far as imports were concerned, overall imports grew only by 2.08 per cent to $37.79 billion and dipped by 2.69 per cent to $190.94 billion during the first five months of this financial year. Oil imports declined by 14.97 percent in August to $12.83 billion, on the other hand non-oil imports during the month were up by 13.82 percent to $ 24.95 billion.