India’s trade strikes a bulls-eye! Exports boost with 20% in May 2018

New Delhi, June 16: Progressing in every sector, India export has seen an upscale in the graph with an increase of 20.18% in the month of May. It is estimated as the highest growth compared to the past six months even though the trade deficit widened to a four-month high of USD 14.62 billion.

Explaining the growth and trade statistics, Union Minister Suresh Prabhu said that the imports too rose by 14.85% to USD 43.48 billion during the month, according to the data released by the commerce ministry. The previous high growth of exports was recorded at 30.55% in November 2017. Exporting sectors, which helped to push the shipments in May include petroleum products, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and engineering. However, exports of cashew, iron ore, textiles, gems and jewelry, handicrafts and carpet were not on an increasable note.

 

According to the data released by the Ministry of Commerce, the cumulative value of exports for the month of April and May during the current fiscal was over 54 billion dollars as against 48.65 billion dollars registering a growth of around 13% over the same period of last year. With this the non-petroleum, non-gems and jewelry exports during May 2018 were valued at around 20 billion dollars as compared to around 18 billion dollars during May 2017, exhibiting a positive growth of around 14%.

 

The Ministry data suggested that the imports during the month of May this year was valued at 43.48 billion dollars which were 14.85% higher than the imports in May 2017. The trade deficit extended to 28.34 billion dollars in the two months of this fiscal as compared to 27.09 billion dollars during the same period of the previous fiscal.

Suresh Prabhu, Union Minister of Commerce stressed on the branding of Indian products and export credit as important focus areas for export promotion. He also suggested that each ministry and department should set targets for increasing exports of their product and product groups in 2018-2019.

The Commerce Minister emphasized that exports are a national priority and an integrated approach is required to promote exports as a joint mission.