In contrast, on the import front, crude soared over 17% to $13.9 billion during the month.Gold imports fell 10.7% to $3.1 billion. “Our exports are holding up despite what is happening globally… Monthly fluctuations in exports are largely impacted by crude oil prices,” commerce secretary Sunil Barthwal told reporters.
He argued that apart from prices, high demand for oil products in India also played a part in lower shipments from the country, while on the import side, with the Indian economy growing at over 7%, there was good demand for crude.
Barthwal said that going by the current trend, the country’s exports of goods and services will cross last year’s level of $778 billion.
The commerce secretary played down concerns over trade disruption with Bangladesh and said that the impact so far was only for a limited period. “We are monitoring trade across the border, disruptions have largely been addressed. There should be improvement in trade and whatever best efforts are required will be taken,” he said.
While the trade deficit with China has widened, the commerce secretary said that in several segments, such as electronics, there was increase in imports of components. “We are looking at sectors where value addition will improve. It is important to see how much value is being added here,” he said, adding that imports were rising also because India was becoming part of the global value chain.
The commerce department is also pitching for an extension of the interest equalisation scheme and RoDTEP, a duty refund scheme for exporters, and a decision will be taken soon, DGFT Santosh Sarangi told reporters.