The Hindu Business Line : Exports register lower growth in Dec at 19.5 pc

Advertisement

New Delhi Jan. 27 After registering a relatively high growth for a couple of months, the country's export growth seems to have slowed down in December 2006, clocking 19.5 per cent growth at $9.9 billion compared with $8.3 billion in December 2005.

However, cumulatively, the country's exports remain buoyant during the first three quarters of the current fiscal, posting a 36.27 per cent growth at $89 billion, against $66 billion during the corresponding period last year. The Commerce Secretary, Mr G.K. Pillai, told Business Line here that the export growth noticeable during the first three quarters of the current fiscal is bound to remain buoyant in the last quarter of the fiscal with the export target turnover of $125 billion being achieved without any hurdle.

According to provisional figures based on the data gleaned by the Directorate-General of Commercial Intelligence & Statistics (DGCI&S), the export growth cumulatively slowed down to 22 per cent if the provisionally revised figure for April-December 2005 ($73 billion) is compared to the provisional figure of the corresponding period this fiscal ($89 billion).

The country's imports during December 2006 are valued at $15.5 billion against $10.9 billion in December 2005 showing a hefty growth of 42 per cent. Cumulatively, import growth during the first three quarters of the current fiscal ran at 36.30 per cent with imports during April-December 2006 being estimated at $131.2 billion compared with $96.2 billion in the corresponding period of 2005. However, the provisionally revised import growth for April-December 2005 has been estimated at $105.1 billion.

Senior officials of the Commerce Ministry said that traditional export items such as engineering, chemicals and new items such as petroleum products did exceedingly well, even as the readymade garment export within the textile segment did reasonably well.

Non-oil imports

A redeeming feature on the import front, they said, is the high import growth of non-oil imports during December 2006, which was 31.81 per cent higher at $10.7 billion than the value of non-oil imports at $8.1 billion in December 2005. The high non-oil import growth in December 2006 reflects import of capital equipment and other import-related industrial inputs for domestic manufacturing and exports, they said.

Cumulatively, non-oil imports during April-December 2006 are valued at $87.3 billion, which was 18.67 per cent higher than the level of such imports valued at $73.6 billion in the corresponding period last year. Crude oil imports during the first three quarters of the current fiscal were valued at $43.8 billion ($31.4 billion), which was 39.23 per cent higher.

As a result of high export growth and higher import growth, the country's trade deficit during the first nine months of the current fiscal zoomed to $41.7 billion, which was higher than the deficit of $30.5 billion during April-December 2005, an official release issued here said.