India’s exports slump by a third

[Naveed Yaseen]

NEW DELHI: India’s exports declined by a third in March to $11.5 billion, its sixth straight fall, and analysts said the global economic slump would further hurt overseas sales by Indian firms in the months ahead.

Imports fell by 34 per cent to $15.56 billion in March from a year earlier due to a slowdown in Asia’s third largest economy and moderate global crude prices , narrowing the trade deficit to $4 billion in March from $6.32 billion a year ago.

“The impact of global economic crisis on India is going to be higher in 2009/10 compared to (the) previous year,” said N R Bhanumurthy, an economist at the Institute of Economic Growth.

“After achieving a robust growth for four consecutive years, India’s export growth started showing negative trend since October 2008 and is expected to continue for the rest of the year due to recessionary situation in most industrialised nations,” he said.

India’s exports stood at $168.7 billion in the fiscal year to March, up a paltry 3.4 per cent from 2007/08, while imports grew 14.3 per cent to $287.8 billion in 2008/09, official data showed on Friday.

Exports, which account for nearly 16 per cent of India’s gross domestic product, were a notch below a downwardly revised 2008/09 fiscal year target of $170 billion.

The trade deficit widened 34 per cent to $119 billion in 2008/09, from $88.5 billion in the previous year.

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