Export figures revealed by government on Saturday for January stood at $20.6 billion showing a hike of 32.5%. The hike in exports is due to strong growth in engineering, gems and jewellery and cotton yarn sectors.

For the first ten months of the year 2010-2011 ended on January, exports rose 29.4% to $184.6 billion whereas imports grew 17.6% to $273.6 billion, said by Commerce secretary Rahul Khullar. The trade deficit during April-January stood at $89 billion.

He said that import figures for the month of January are just rough estimates and actual figure is likely to change. Appraising country’s export performance he is very optimistic that export will cross $200 billion in February 2011.

The sectors which recorded a strong improvements during April 2010-January 2011 are engineering ($45 billion); gems & jewellery ($24.5 billion); petroleum & oil products ($30 billion); cotton yarn & made-ups ($4.7 billion); electronics ($6.4 billion) and plastics & linoleum ($3.7 billion).

On the other hand exports of rice, iron ore and vegetables illustrated a decline because of ban on exports from these sectors.