Aided by services, India to achieve $750 billion export target in FY23: Govt

With an estimated 30.48% year-on-year growth in services exports during April-February 2022-23, India is all set to exceed it's $750 billion goods and services export target set for 2022-23, commerce secretary Sunil Barthwal has said.

Announcing the quick estimates of India’s foreign trade for February 2023 in Delhi on March 15, Barthwal said India’s overall exports (merchandise and services combined) in April-February 2022-23 are estimated to exhibit a positive growth of 16.18% over the same period last year (April-February 2021-22).

While services exports are expected to jump to $296.94 billion during April-February 2022-23 from $227.58 billion in the same period the previous year, merchandise exports are estimated to touch $405.94 billion during the 11 months of 2022-23, up from $ 377.43 billion on a year-on-year basis. Since the latest data for the services sector released by the RBI is for January 2023, the ministry’s projections for February 2023 are an estimation, which will be revised based on the RBI’s subsequent release.

A commerce ministry statement said India’s overall exports are projected to grow at 16.18% during April-February 2022-23 over the same period last year. Under merchandise exports, 17 of the 30 key sectors exhibited positive growth during April-February 2022-23 as compared to the same period last financial year.

These include electronic goods (49.54%), petroleum products (49.5%), oil meals (44.12%), tobacco (34.3%), cereal preparations & miscellaneous processed items (16.12%), rice (15.88%), oil seeds (13.36%), etc. The merchandise goods, which showed negative growth in imports during the same period, are gold (-29.71%), sulphur & unroasted iron pyrites (-25.83%), pulses (-15.66%), medicinal & pharmaceutical products (-10.54%) and dyeing/tanning/colouring materials (-1.52%).

The growth in merchandise exports was almost stagnant if one excludes the petroleum and gems & jewellery category of exports from April-February 2022-23. The rest of the exports stood at $ 284.52 billion, as compared to $ 284.45 billion in April-February 2021-22.

However, the import of non-petroleum, non-gems & jewellery (gold, silver & precious metals) was higher, $ 395.37 billion in April-February 2022-23 compared to $ 333.44 billion in April-February 2021-22.

Vijay Kalantri, chairman, MVIRDC World Trade Center Mumbai, said the trade data of February 2023 showed India's merchandise export fell for the third consecutive month due to weak global economic conditions. Overall merchandise exports during February 2023 were 8.8% lower than a year ago.