EXPORTS AND IMPORTS SEE STEEPEST FALL IN THREE YEARS

NEW DELHI: India’s merchandise exports as well as imports contracted by the most in more than three years in September, reflecting a slump in global demand as well as in India.

Merchandise exports shrank 6.57% to $26 billion, while imports dropped 13.9% to $36.9 billion, narrowing India’s trade deficit to a seven-month low of $10.9 billion, showed data released by the commerce department on Tuesday.

Out of the 30 major items in India’s export and import baskets, 22 export items and 25 that are imported saw a contraction. Among large export items, gems and jewellery (-5.56%), chemicals (-3.5%), engineering goods (-6.2%), ready-made garments (-2.2%) and petroleum products (-18.6%) contracted, while export of pharmaceuticals was the only item to have expanded (8.7%).

Among major importing items, import of coal (-24%), petroleum (-18.3%), chemicals (-16.2%), plastic material (-10.7%), precious stones (-17.3%), iron and steel (-14.6%), electronic goods (-0.14%) and gold (-50.8%) shrank. The only silver lining that signalled a probable revival in domestic investment activity was import of electrical and non-electrical machinery, which shot up 19.4% although import of transport equipment slumped 51%.

Sharad Kumar Saraf, president of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations, said the declining trend in exports does not augur well for overall growth of the Indian economy. “The softening of commodity prices including crude, US-China trade war, Brexit and developments in Iran, Turkey and other Gulf nations have further aggravated the problem of the world economy,” he said.