Exports fall 37% in May, trade DEFICIT NARROWS TO $3.15 BN

Imports too fell 51% to $22.2 billion in May, compared to $15.36 billion in May 2019

NEW DELHI: Contracting for the third straight month, India’s exports shrank 36.47 per cent in May to $ 19.05 billion on weak global demand due to COVID-19, leading to significant decline in shipments by key sectors like engineering, petroleum and textiles, as per a government data.

Imports too plunged 51 per cent to $22.2 billion in May,

leaving a trade deficit of $ 3.15 billion, compared to $ 15.36 billion in the same month previous year.

However, the dip in exports during the month under review is low as compared to 60.28 per cent fall in April.

Barring rice, spices, iron ore and pharmaceuticals, all the remaining 26 key sectors registered negative growth in May, according to the commerce and industry ministry data released on Monday.

It included Gems and jewellery (-68.83 per cent), leather (-75 per cent), petroleum products (-68.46 per cent), engineering goods (-24.25 per cent), and ready-made garments (RMG) of all textiles (-66.19 per cent). Oil imports in May declined by 71.98 per cent to $ 3.49 bil

lion, w?hile non-oil imports dipped 43.13 per cent to $ 18.71 billion, the data showed. Excluding project goods, sulphur and unroasted iron pyrites, 28 key import sectors like gold, silver, transport equipment, coal, fertiliser, machinery and machine tools have recorded negative growth during the month.

Gold imports in May fell 98.4 per cent to $ 76.31 million. Commenting on the numbers, Trade Promotion Council of India (TPCI) Mohit Singla said that there has been a positive movement to catch growth, which has been under bad weather due to deadly pandemic.

“Food commodities has always been a staple demand driver owing to its essential nature. We must capitalise to its inherent strength and strategies to make it more robust for the country growth,” Singla said. Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said there is drastic arrest in the fall of exports during the month as compared to April and this has been because of the partial start of units across the country and

order enquiries from the markets like the US and EU. “Revival still seems a very slow process as the global business sentiments are at its lowest, impacting the supply chain and bringing slump or recessionary conditions in the economies across the world,” FIEO President Sharad Kumar Saraf said.

He also expressed his “seri