India's merchandise trade jumps 5-fold to $792 billion over nine years.

NEW DELHI: India's merchandise trade rose over five-fold to $792 billion over last nine years, the Commerce Ministry today said.

"This was achieved through robust policy announcements, which provided crucial support to struggling enterprises, especially labour intensive industry to ensure their global competitiveness," the Ministry said in a statement.

It said that over the last nine years, the total merchandise trade increased to $792 billion from $142 billion.

"India's external economic engagement has been considerably enhanced over the last nine years. The Foreign Trade Policy is focused on arresting and reversing the decline in exports," it added.

The ministry said the market diversification strategy to enhance exports has yielded positive results.

Due to demand slowdown in its traditional markets, the government provided incentives to exporters to explore non-traditional destinations such as Africa, Latin America and Asia.

During April-December this fiscal, the country's exports aggregated $230.3 billion and imports $340.3 billion, translating to a trade deficit of $110 billion.

In 2012-13, exports stood at $300.6 billion as compared to $63.8 billion in 2003-04, it said adding that the total trade of goods and services stands at around $1 trillion annually, which comes to 56 per cent of the GDP.

Further, it said that exports from Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have increased to $87.55 billion in 2012-13 fiscal.

In the past four years, exports from SEZs have grown four-fold. SEZs at present are providing direct employment to about 11,50,000 persons, it said.

The Ministry said implementation of free trade agreements have also helped in boosting the country's total trade.

"We are at an advanced stage of concluding an ambitious Broad based Trade and Investment agreement with EU. We expect that as a result of these agreements, Indian exports will be able to gain significant market access in newer territories," it added.

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com