India has recorded a dip of 4.85 per cent in the merchendise exports in November. As per the government data released on Monday, India’s merchandise exports fell to UDS 32.11 billion in November while the import bill jumped 27 per cent to a record high of USD 69.95 billion.
Meanwhile, the Gold imports in November reached an all-time high of USD 14.8 billion. The trade deficit, or the gap between imports and exports, widened to USD 37. 84 billion during the month.
The data by the Commerce Ministry issued on December 16 showed that the country’s merchandise exports had increased by 17.25 per cent to USD 39.2 billion in October this year. During April-November this fiscal, exports increased by 2.17 per cent to USD 284.31 billion and imports by 8.35 per cent to USD 486.73 billion.
Commerce Secretary’s statement on import-export
Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal on Thursday said that India should not be concerned about imports as long as the exports’ share continues to grow. The secretary called for avoiding the ‘mercantilist approach’ and not bother too much about trade balance and imports.
“As long as we are able to improve our exports share, we should not be too much concerned about imports and that is what I feel that we need to avoid,” he added.
The secretary further called for avoiding the ‘mercantilist approach’ and not worry too much about trade balance and imports. “Because if the Indian economy is growing at 7 per cent and if the world is growing at 3-3.5 per cent….then obviously India will be requiring more of consumption, more of imports and let me tell you that the role of imports in exports is also very very important,” he said at CII’s Global Economic Policy Forum.
(With inputs from PTI)
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