Indian exports show 18% growth in November

Federation of Indian Export Promotion Organization Going by the provisional figures released by the Directorate-General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics for November 2009, an 18 percent growth in exports marked a notable recovery for the exports sector in India.

The export figures, which showed growth after being in the red since October 2008, leaped to $13.19 billion in November, as against the same month year-before figures of $11.16 billion. However, the import figures during the month stood at $22.88 billion, marking a 2.6 percent year-on-year fall.

During the 13-month period in which the exports remained in the negative territory, the authorities framed policy support, especially to prop up the labor-intensive export divisions like handicrafts, leather, gem and jewellery, and agro industries.

However, despite the notable increase in November 2009 export figures, the cumulative foreign trade numbers revealed that exports still remained in the negative zone, showing 22.3 percent negative growth during April to November 2009.

With the outward trade having turned positive during the month of November, the chief concern of the Commerce Ministry is to uphold the positive trend in the coming months, so as to wrap up the year at $165-170 billion, the 2007-08 level of exports.

Expressing a similar concern, A. Saktivel, President of the Federation of Indian Export Promotion Organization (FIEO), said that projecting the overall export trend for the fiscal would not be possible on the basis of the "one month" performance.