NEW DELHI: India's shipments in January jumped 11.5% year-on-year to $14.3 billion to maintain an upswing for the third straight month, though the latest figures remian a tad lower than the $14.6 billion levels notched in December.
Commerce minister Anand Sharma remained bullish and saw a further strengthening of the growth ‘‘between now and March 31'' which will end the fiscal with a robust number. During April-January, exports stood at $133 billion against $144 billion in the year-ago period. In the five-year foreign trade policy for 2009, the government had set an export target of $200 billion for 2010-11.
Even textiles minister Dayanidhi Maran said the sector, one of the biggest contributors to exports and second biggest employer after agriculture, was out of the woods. "We could read between the lines that the bad (recession) days for textiles exports are over. We are in the positive terrain," Maran said after inaugurating handicrafts cluster exhibition here.
Maran said textiles exporters are now getting fresh orders from the US and European markets as inventories in stores are almost over. ‘‘We saw a growth of 5% in December and 7% in January on a monthly basis after registering an average decline of 15% during Apr-Nov 2009,'' he said.
But despite the growth, it is early to feel upbeat as some sectors are still struggling to come out of the bad phase. Sharma said engineering goods, jute, carpets, handicrafts and leather "continue to do badly" and are a cause of concern. Though there has been recovery in global economy, "it will take time for the demand (for Indian goods) to return to pre-recession level".
On Wednesday, TOI had reported commerce secretary Rahul Khullar as saying he saw exports in the region of $14 billion in January. Exports grew 9.3% in December against $13.37 billion a year ago. The December jump came about once exports turned positive in November after recording a cotinuous decline for 14 months.had said
In January 2009, exports had stood at $12.9 billion. Exports were hit by the slump in demand from key markets in the wake of global slowdown. Shipments declined continuously for 13 months. They reversed the trend in November 2009 by jumping 18.2%.
Source : TOI