Ongoing global slowdown impacted the exports of India for the month of October. Export is declined by 12 per cent following slow demand in the international markets as per the data released by the Directorate of Commercial Intelligence & Statistics (DGCI&S) and Department of Commerce. Export was growing at 23.7 per cent in dollar terms for the April-October period of the current fiscal. However, cumulative value of export continued to decline as compared the same period of last month.

The Commerce Secretary, Mr Gopal K. Pillai said that the export witnessed decline following the global slowdown and low demand in the labour-intensive export industries such as textiles, gem and jewellery. Government is planning to convene a meeting under the chairmanship of the Cabinet Secretary Mr K. M. Chandrasekhar for discussing relief measures for the labour-intensive export industries. Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, himself can announce more measures for the industry in the coming days.

The Federation of Indian Export Organisation (FIEO) President, Mr G. K. Gupta asked for more incentives, cheap credit and income-tax exemption for the exporters to heal the export business.

Meanwhile, India's trade deficit increased to $72.99 billion during the period April-October 2008.