The Hindu Business Line : Exports grow 19% in August despite appreciating rupee

Despite appreciation of the rupee vis-À-vis the dollar and its adverse impact on exporters’ margins, the country’s export is cruising on a high growth path with the latest figure for August notching up a growth of close to 19 per cent in dollar terms and cumulative export growth during April to August 2007 at 18.36 per cent.

Provisional figures compiled by the Directorate-General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S) show that exports during August 2007 were $12,686.38 million, which was 18.91 per cent higher than the level of $10,668.78 million during August 2006. In rupee terms, exports amounted to Rs 51,787.31 crore, which was 4.31 per cent higher than the value of exports during August 2006.

Performance

The cumulative value of exports during the first five months of the current fiscal amounted to $59,483.99 million (Rs 2,43,611 crore) against $50,255.50 million (Rs 2,30,788.99 crore), registering a growth of 18.36 per cent in dollar terms and 5.56 per cent in rupee terms during the same period last year.

Senior officials in the Commerce Ministry told Business Line here that because of the appreciation of rupee, most of the import-intensive export production such as engineering goods, man-made yarn and fabrics, and gems and jewellery had done well as they were able to import intermediates or raw materials on a higher volume at a relatively cheaper price to process and export abroad.

Cumulatively, imports for the period April-August 2007 at $91,986.78 million (Rs 3,76,964.85 crore) against $70,181.41 million (Rs 3,22,203.73 crore) showed a growth of 31.07 per cent in dollar terms and 17 per cent in rupee terms during the same period last year.

Oil imports during the first five months of the current fiscal were valued at $25,901.26 million, 8.32 per cent higher than $23912.08 million in the corresponding months of last year. Cumulatively, non-oil imports during April-August 2007 were valued at $66,085.52 million, which was 42.85 per cent higher than the level of such imports valued at $46,260.56 million in April-August 2006.