New Delhi, Feb. 25 The Economic Survey on Thursday said software services exports have shown a negative growth of 11.5 per cent during the first half of FY10. The data in the Economic Survey are bound to cause some heartburn in the IT industry, which has been eyeing an export growth rate of 5.5 per cent for the full year ending March 2010.
However, it is pertinent to mention here that while Nasscom gives out export forecast (5.5 per cent growth for the current fiscal) it does not specify half yearly numbers.
“The economic recession in leading export destinations adversely impacted the performance of Indian IT companies. The increase of 14.6 per cent in software and services exports in 2008-09 was the net effect of a growth of 35.3 per cent in the first six months and a decline of 1.9 per cent in the next six months.
The decline continued in the first half of 2009-10 as well,” the Survey said pegging the software services export performance at a negative 11.5 per cent during the first six months of the current financial year.
Nasscom reacts
When contacted, Nasscom President, Mr Som Mittal, countered the data saying, “There is evidence that top companies were flat in the first half of FY10, in dollar terms. A negative 11.5 per cent (for the industry) would have meant chaos.”
“We are not able to figure out where the data are coming from…is it in rupee or dollar terms, how have they determined the gross currency. Perhaps if the data are from STPI, there could have been possibly a lag effect on submission of forms by various companies,” Mr Mittal said.
According to the apex software association, during the current financial year, IT and BPO export revenues are expected to grow 5.5 per cent to $49.7 billion, placing it almost at the $50 billion milestone that the industry had been craving for.
India's IT and BPO exports are projected to grow 13-15 per cent in FY11 to $56-57 billion, the growth rate three times that of the current fiscal.
The Economic Survey further pointed out that during 2008, electronics hardware production in the country constituted around 1.5 per cent of global electronics production.
The production of electronics hardware in the country stood at an estimated Rs 94,690 crore in 2008-09.
This translated into a growth of 12.1 per cent compared to a growth of 27.8 per cent in 2007-08. “The decline is attributable to the global economic slowdown,” the survey added.
Source : Business Line