Exports Growth Slowest in 3 Months; $300 Billion Target Difficult

Bangalore: India's exports grew by an annual 4.2 percent in February, slowest in 3 months, to $24.6 billion and the country may miss the target of $300 billion for 2011-12 in the wake of difficult global environment. In sharp contrast, imports grew at a faster rate of 20.6 percent Year-on-Year to $39.7 billion in February, leaving a trade deficit of $15.1 billion. Trade gap for the 11-month period stood at $166.7 billion, widening the country's Current Account Deficit (CAD). The CAD has already touched a worrisome figure of $19.6 billion during the December quarter or 4.3 percent of the GDP. From a peak of 82 percent in July, export growth slipped to 44.25 percent in August, 36.36 percent in September, 10.8 percent in October and 3.8 percent in November. However, it grew by 6.7 percent in December 2011 and over 10 percent in January. During the April-February period in 2011-12, exports aggregated to $267.4 billion, a Year-on-Year growth of 21.4 percent, thanks to the surge witnessed in the early months of the fiscal. Industry experts said the country's shipments may touch $290 billion by the end of the fiscal. "We are inching towards our target of $300 billion but may fell short of it due to the global slowdown," Federation of Indian Export Organisations President, Rafeeque Ahmed, said. Ahmed said the impact of growing protectionism and the euro-zone crisis may continue to weigh on Indian exports in 2012-13 as well. During the 11-month period, imports increased by 29.4 percent to $434.1 billion.