March exports to remain in negative zone

“I expect that in March,exports would be about $12-14 billion,” he said,adding for the fiscal ended March 2009,the total exports would be $168-170 billion. Up to February,overseas trade aggregated to $156.59 billion.

This will be the sixth straight month of negative growth.

Thanks to an impressive growth of over 30 per cent in the first half of the fiscal 2008-09,the country’s annual exports are expected to end on a positive note. However,the growth would be merely 3-4 per cent over fiscal 2007-08. The March data is due to be released on May 1.

The recession in the developed markets,including the US and Europe,started eating into India’s exports since October,2008,when shipments fell by 12.1 per cent for the first time in five years.

The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) has estimated a job loss of 10 million in the export manufacturing units.

The Commerce Secretary was talking to reporters on the sidelines of an Indo-American Chamber of Commerce meeting here today.

While exports grew by 18 per cent in rupee terms in the last fiscal,the expansion was largely because of about 20 per cent depreciation in the value of the local currency against the US dollar that accounts for bulk of the global trade.