December Exports in Doldrums, Gold Import Shoots up 88 percent
India's overall exports (merchandise
and services) in April-December 2020-21 were estimated at USD 348.49 billion, exhibiting a negative growth of 12.65 per cent over
the same period last year, the data showed.
New Delhi: India’s exports in December returned to the positive
territory after two months even as the country’s trade deficit
swelled to a 25-month high on high imports of non-oil goods especially gold.
Buoyed by food products, electronics
and pharmaceuticals, outbound shipments grew 0.14% to $27.15 billion against a 0.8%
contraction shown in the preliminary data released earlier this month.
Gold imports rose a whopping 81.8% to
$4.4 billion, the highest since May 2019, and the trade deficit widened to $15.44
billion in December from $9.87 billion in November.
Exports of 20 out of the 30 major product
categories were positive during the month, data released by the commerce and industry
ministry showed Friday with the growth in non-oil exports improving to 5.6%,
reversing the dips seen in the previous two months. Exports in the first nine months
of 2020-21 were $200.8 billion.
Growth in non-oil exports benefitted
from the healthy performance of sectors such as iron ore, electronic goods, drugs
and pharma.
“The sharp rise in the merchandise trade
deficit to a 25-month high US$15.4 billion in December 2020, was driven by the surge
in non-oil imports that was exaggerated by pent-up demand,” said Aditi Nayar, principal economist at ICRA.
Overall imports were up 7.56% on-year
at $42.59 billion last month.
Federation of Indian Export Organisations President, Sharad Kumar
Saraf said that this shows signs of revival as order booking
position has continuously improved besides more new orders in the offing.
“December exports also signals that our
traditional and labour-intensive sectors of exports have
passed the most challenging and testing times as both Christmas and New Year Season
sales have shown positive trends with further improvement in coming months,” he
said.
However, the apex body of exporters expects
India to clock $285-290 billion of exports in FY21, lower than $314.31 billion in
2019-20.
In December 2020, oil imports declined
10.61% to $9.58 billion. However, non-oil and non-gold imports, an estimate of the
strength of domestic demand rose 7.99%.
As per the data, India’s overall exports
(merchandise and services) in April-December 2020-21 were estimated at $348.49 billion,
down 12.65% over the same period last year while overall imports declined 25.86%
to $343.27 billion.