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Journalism of Courage
India’s exports jumped by more than a quarter in November,the trade secretary said,and a surge in the sales of cars,oil products and gems signals Asia’s third-largest economy could trump its 2010/11 export target.
India can also cheer a trade deficit that has shrunk to an eight-month low of $8.9 billion in November,helped by a slower growth in oil imports,after hitting a 23-month high in August that had put pressure on its current account deficit.
India’s exports for the current fiscal year to end-March 2011 will probably touch $210 billion to $215 billion,compared with an earlier target of $200 billion,even though the euro zone debt crisis has started biting into the demand for Indian goods.
There has been been a significant turnaround in engineering goods,which includes car sales,with a growth rate of nearly 50 per cent since April,Rahul Khullar said.
“There is a huge amount of positive growth virtually everywhere.”
India’s exports in November rose an annual 26.8 per cent to $18.9 billion,while imports for the month grew 11.2 per cent on the year to $27.8 billion,provisional data released by Khullar on Wednesday showed.
He said the figures were likely to be revised upwards.
India’s trade deficit in November stood at $8.9 billion compared with $9.7 billion in October.
India’s trade deficit in August had widened to $13.06 billion and Khullar had said then that the deficit could touch $135 billion in the current fiscal year,higher than his earlier forecast for $120 billion.
But on Wednesday he lowered his estimate back to $120 billion based on current trends. A spike in global oil prices could again prompt a revision,he warned.
Oil imports slowed to a growth of 2.3 per cent in November from the double digit growth seen earlier in the year,but Khullar said the figure would probably rise in December and January.
