Exports shoot up 30% in April

The country displayed an impressive export performance in 1999-2000 by clocking a 11.58 per cent, exceeding the target of 11.3 per cent. This was in sharp contrast to the rather poor showing in the preceding two years of the Ninth Plan.

The exports in 1999-2000 were estimated at $ 37,537.54 million ($ 37.53 billion) compared to $ 33,641.46 million in the preceding year.

Imports in 1999-2000 were estimated at $ 46,153.77 million, 10.19 per cent higher than the level of $ 41,886.63 milion in the same period of the preceding year.The trade deficit rose sharply to $ 8,616.23 million.

The first year of the Ninth Plan (1997-98) saw exports growing by just 4.6 per cent compared to 5.3 per cent in the preceding year.

In the second year of the Plan (1998-99) exports stood at $ 33.20 billion going by the revised data compiled by the Directorate-General of Commercial Inteligence and Statistics (DGCI & S), Calcutta. This figure was however lower than the provisionallay estimated $ 33.64 billion.

The final import figure for 1998-99 has been worked out as $ 42.40 billion, up by $ 514 million from the provisional figure of $ 41.88 billion. As a result the trade deficit touched an all-time high of $ 9.2 billion. The trade deficit provisionally estimated was at $ 8.24 billion.