Wednesday, 09 Oct, 2024
By: Yash Gupte
India's merchandise exports during April-January this fiscal have increased to $369.25 billion as against $340.28 billion in the same period last year. Image Source: IANS
India’s overall exports from April- January 2022-23 stood at $641.24 billion as compared to $546.55 billion in April- January 2021-22. Along with exports, the imports also registered an increase from $612.75 billion from April- January 2021-22 to $753.19 billion from April- January 2022-23.
Recently Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal marked that the country's goods and services exports are marching ahead to cross $750 billion in the current financial year and talks for expanding rupee trade with certain countries are at an advanced stage. Goyal said that exports last year hit a record high of $676 billion. He said that we are advancing and getting closer to exporting $750 billion worth of goods and services in 2022–2023. Piyush Goyal was delivering his address at the CII Partnership Summit. Earlier, he had made similar claims at the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi.
India's merchandise exports during April-January this fiscal have increased to $369.25 billion as against $340.28 billion in the same period last year. Services exports during the 10-month period are estimated at $272 billion. India’s overall exports from April- January 2022-23 stood at $641.24 billion as compared to $546.55 billion in April- January 2021-22. Along with exports, the imports also registered an increase from $612.75 billion from April- January 2021-22 to $753.19 billion from April- January 2022-23, taking the trade deficit to $111.94 billion.
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal while expressing confidence in India’s impressive export performance in 2022-23 despite global headwinds at the Raisina Dialogue 2023 said that “First of all, figures available up to 28th of February give me that confidence. We, of course, crossed last year’s figure already and we are well on track. We will be hopefully crossing $750 billion.” It must be observed that Piyush Goyal’s statement is backed by the impressive performance of India’s exports in the current fiscal year.
Though Mr. Piyush Goyal’s optimistic statements about India’s exports crossing the mark of $750 billion in the current fiscal bring hope for a decrease in India’s trade deficit, the trade statistics of January 2023 needs to be looked at. According to the data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, India’s exports in the month of January 2023 have declined by 6.58 percent from $35.23 billion in the same period last year to $32.91 billion in January 2023. On the other hand, imports dipped by 3.63 percent to $50.66 billion in January 2023, down from 52.57 billion in the year-ago period. As a result, the nation's trade deficit for January stood at $17.75 billion. Talking about December 2022, India’s exports fell by 5.2 percent year-on-year to $61.82 billion as compared to December 2021 when the exports stood at $65.25 billion. The imports in the month of December declined 1.9 percent Y-o-Y to $73.80 billion against $75.27 billion in December 2021.
Considering the statements made by Piyush Goyal about India’s exports crossing the mark of $750 billion in the current fiscal, India Tracker takes a look the exports made by the nation in current fiscal year.
Source: Ministry of Commerce and Industry
One thing which needs to be and can be clearly understood from the above chart is that India’s exports per month in the current fiscal year stands at an average of $60 billion. The month of December registered the highest exports of goods and services. December 2022 recorded exports worth $69.32 billion, highest in current financial year followed by June 2022 when the exports were recorded at $69.21 billion. On the other hand, the lowest exports worth $56.97 billion were recorded in the month of October. If we consider the average of exports per month i.e. around $60 billion and if the statement made by the Commerce Minister is to be assessed then India’s total exports in the financial year 2022-23 can definitely cross the mark of $750 billion and the claims made by Mr. Piyush Goyal can be believed.
Making the mathematics crystal here, India’s exports from April- January 2022-23 stands at $641.24 billion. If we take the average of exports worth $60 billion in February and March, then the country’s total exports would easily cross the mark of $750 billion in the current fiscal year [(Exports from April- January 2022-23 = $641.24 billion) + (average exports worth $60 billion in February) + (average exports worth $60 Billion in March) = total exports from April 2022- March 2023 -$761.24 billion)]. According to a simple calculation made here by taking the average of exports per month in the current financial year, India’s exports in FY 2022-23 may even cross the mark of $761.24 billion.
Taking a look at the figures from the past, it can be said that the exports in February and March may cross the mark of $60 billion easily as March 2022 had recorded exports worth $71.52 billion. Therefore, it can be concretely said that the statements made by Mr. Piyush Goyal on different occasions about India’s exports are entirely true and India’s exports can definitely cross the mark of $750 billion in the FY 2022-23.
