According to the provision data published by the Commerce Ministry of India ,India’s exports to other countries in its top five sectors such as engineering, petroleum, gems and jewellery, textiles and pharmaceuticals has declined by about 25% and amounted to $13.33 billion in August. The main reason that attributed to this decline was slowing down of the global demand. These were the main five sectors which accounted for about 65% to the country’s total merchandise exports in 2014-15. The total exports of these sectors were $17.79 billion in August last year.
The provision data also revealed that the industries in the engineering, petroleum and textiles sector recorded a negative growth and the industries under the gems and jewellery and pharmaceuticals sectors has registered a marginal growth of about 2.66% and 6% respectively during the month when it was reviewed. In 2014-15, exports of these segments stood at $202.15 billion and the country’s total exports were aggregated at $310.5 billion in the last financial year.
The Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO) proposed that these sectors are labor intensive and the government should announce more steps which contain the dip in outbound shipments. The decline in exports has been the main reason in dragging down India’s overall merchandise exports. Based on the continued decline in exports the Commerce Ministry has called a meeting of exporters to discuss the ways to contain fall in the outbound shipments. The continuous decline in exports will have a great negative impact on the jobs and put pressure on the current account deficit.
India has aimed to make its total exports of goods and services reach $900 billion by 2020 by which the country’s share in the world exports will be increased to 3.5% from the current 2 %. The total exports in the past four financial years were around $300 billion.
