Share of manufacturing in exports at 11-year high of 70%

NEW DELHI:INDIA’S exports might have witnessed the worst-ever year in 2015-16, declining by 15.9% to $261.1 billion, but the contribution of manufacturing in total exports hit a 11-year high of 70%.

“Manufacturing activity has seen a revival. Efforts have been made in the past and we will continue to push the sector so that the contribution of manufacturing increases not only in exports but also in the overall GDP of the country,” commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman told HT.

The share of manufacturing in country’s exports has been on a decline in the first decade of the millennium. The share started slipping from a peak of 76.1% in 2001-02 to touch a low of 59% in 2011-12.

According to commerce ministry data, engineering goods, gems and jewellery, ready-made garments, drugs and pharmaceuticals, and organic chemicals alone drove almost three-fourth of the growth in 2015-16.

The director general of foreign trade (DGFT) in its recent observations submitted to Sitharaman said: “Traditionally, these five sectors have been major contributors to the total manufacturing exports of the country”.

“However, the increase in share of the manufacturing sector to total exports from 64% in 2014-15 to more than 69% in 2015-16 may have been due to the recent government initiatives on manufacturing,” DGFT added.

Some of these efforts were also recognised by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in it’s recently published “World Trade Statistical Review” which highlighted that India’s global trade engagement in 2015 was better than most of the other countries in almost every segment in which it has a noticeable presence.

The WTO estimates say that in sectors such as chemical and textile exports, India ranked ninth and third respectively, in terms of global trade engagement.

In case of textile exports India lagged China and the European Union. China ranks tenth as far as chemical exports are concerned.