Exports Rise Nearly 5% To $35.45 Billion in September

India’s merchandise exports grew 4.82 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to $35.45 billion in September, as per the data released by the Commerce Ministry on Friday. With the release of this data, the ministry also revised its earlier estimates of a contraction as several other indicators showed different signs. 

In its preliminary data released in the beginning of this month, the ministry pointed that India’s merchandise exports contracted by 3.52 per cent and boiled down to $32.62 billion in September, as per a report in PTI. 

According to the data released on Friday, as India’s merchandise exports grew (given above), its imports also rose 8.66 per cent to $61.16 billion in the month under review. These figures also resulted in a trade deficit of $25.71 billion as against $22.47 billion in the previous year. However, it must be noted that this deficit has also eased sequentially from $27.98 billion in August, even after it touched a record high of $30 billion in July. 

As per a PTI report, the data also shows that in April-September 2022, these exports recorded a total growth of $16.96 billion to $231.88 billion and the imports rose by 38.55 per cent to $380.34 billion. Here, the trade deficit widened to $148.46 billion against $76.25 billion in September, 2021, the report states. 

Coming to the growth of specific goods and/or industries, the exports of engineering goods fell by 10.85 per cent to $8.4 billion in September. Similarly, the export of (ready-made garments) RMG of all textiles also dipped by 18 per cent to $1 billion and shipments of plastics decreased by 12.2 per cent to $660.66 million. 

While exports of key sectors like engineering, RMG of all textiles, plastic, cashew, carpet recorded negative growth in September, the exports of gems and jewellery petroleum products, leather, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and rice have recorded positive growth in September, PTI reports. 

In addition to this, the ministry also estimated the value of services export for September 2022 at $25.65 billion, which is an increase of 18.72 per cent over September, 2021. Apart from this, even coal, coke and briquettes rose by 60.82 per cent to $3.5 billion in September.