NEW DELHI: India's exports continued to surge for the tenth successive month growing by 22.5 per cent to $16.64 billion in August as compared to the same period last fiscal.
However, imports also jumped by 32.2 per cent year-on-year to $29.67 billion in August, according to the government data released here on Friday. Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar had recently said that export growth was relatively slow and well below the level of 2008-09.
During April-August this fiscal, exports posted a growth rate of 28.6 per cent to $85.27 billion on a year-on-year basis. Imports grew by 33.1 per cent to $141.89 billion.
The trade deficit for the period stood at $56.62 billion, outstripping the deficit of $40.28 billion logged in the same period a year earlier. In August, the trade deficit widened to $13.03 billion as compared to the year-ago period.
The government is aiming for around 15 per cent export growth in the current fiscal year to March 2011 after a drop of nearly 5 per cent in the previous year and is confident that it will be able to touch the $200-billion export target set for 2010-11. India's exports rose more than 30 per cent each month between November and June. Hailing the 22.5 per cent growth, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), President A. Shakthivel said it reiterated FIEO's view that India's exporters were on our course to realise the export target or even surpass it to reach $210 billion.
Mr. Sakthivel attributed this growth to the diversification of the export market primarily due to the strategic initiatives taken by the Commerce and Industry Minister under the Focus Market Scheme and Market Linked Focus Product Scheme.
In a related development, coffee exports got a major boost surging 60 per cent to 2.72 lakh tonnes in the 2009-10 crop year ending September, on the back of higher production.
According to Coffee Board of India, higher domestic supply has driven exports. Shipments have risen to 2.72 lakh tonnes this year from the low of 1.78 lakh tonnes last year. Though the realisation was marginally lower at Rs. 1.03 lakh a tonne, overall exports in value terms rose by 43 per cent to Rs.2,787 crore in the 2009-10 crop year from Rs.1,954.37 crore in the previous year. India, Asia's biggest coffee exporter, harvested 2.89 lakh tonnes of coffee in 2009-10 which runs from October to September. India is estimated to have shipped as much as one lakh tonnes of arabica variety coffee, besides robusta varieties, mainly to Italy, Russia and Germany.
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