Exports drop 24 pc in November, imports shrink too

Contraction in exports continued for the 12th month in a row in November as outward shipments shrank 24.43% to $20.01 billion (Rs 1.34 lakh crore) amid a global demand slowdown.

On export front, there was sharp decline in shipments of petroleum products (53.9 %), engineering goods (28.57 %), rice (37.12%), iron ore (14.04 %) and gems and jewellery (21.52 %).

While imports would rise as domestic demand and investments pick up and commodity prices stabilise, exports are likely to remain weak because of subdued global growth – especially when there is structural weakness in trade.

Imports, too, declined by 30.26 per cent to $29.79 billion in November against $42.72 billion a year ago. While oil imports shrunk 45 per cent to $6.4 billion in the month mainly on account of the falling crude oil prices, non-oil imports declined 25 per cent to $23.3 billion.

As a result, the trade deficit also fell sharply to Dollars 9.78 billion from USD 16.236 billion. But the trade deficit in November was marginally higher than that the trade deficit of 9.76 billion dollars. The rate of drop in exports for November is the highest since then.

Oil imports during November 2015 were valued at $6.44 billion, which was 44.99 per cent lower than oil imports valued at $11.70 billion in the corresponding period past year. During April-November 2015, India’s cumulative imports were $261 billion. Non-oil imports during April-November, 2015-16 were valued at $200438.75 million which was 4.41 per cent lower than the level of such imports valued at $209684.64 million in April-November, 2014-15.

The out-bound shipments in November a year ago was United States dollars 26.48 billion. The ministry’s move to partially tweak the MEIS by providing more incentives to exporters came after the finance ministry had agreed to raise the allocation for the scheme to R21,000 crore for the current fiscal from R18,000 crore announced earlier. Cumulative value of imports for the period April-November 2015-16 in Dollar terms was $261850.21 million, as against $316280.68 million, registering a negative growth of 17.21 per cent in Dollar terms.