The fiscal 2009-10 opened on a negative note, with India’s year-on-year exports plunging by 33 percent in April, marking the seventh consecutive monthly fall! While the official data pertaining to exports, imports, and trade deficits for the month of April will be released on June 1, the provisional import figures have also shown a drop of 32 percent.

The reported plunge in exports presents figures similar to the earlier month, when they fell 33.3 percent – marking the maximum drop in more than ten years. India’s exports aggregated $168.70 billion in the fiscal 2008-09, thereby indicating a measly 3.4 percent growth rate.

Commenting on the fall in April exports, on the sidelines of a FICCI function on Thursday, Commerce Secretary G K Pillai told reporters: “Exports are estimated at $10.79 billion in April. It is expected to be down 33 percent. The slowdown will continue till August.”

Pillai said that the sharp drop in exports was not unexpected given the global slowdown as well as a nine percent contraction in worldwide trade.  

Even the Confederation of Indian Industry opines that India’s exports have suffered severe blows at the hands of the ongoing economic and financial crisis; with 36 percent of the CII-Business Confidence survey expecting a turnaround for the better in the first half of the current fiscal.