Skip to main content

Export growth rate dips to 9.07% in Jan

By
 Export growth rate dips to 9.07% in Jan
Trade deficit balloons to nearly five-year high at $16.3 billion.
Growth in exports reduced in January to 9.07 per cent, from 12.03 per cent in December.

With exports of $24.38 billion, the growth rate in January dipped to a single digit for the first time in three months. The rate in December more than halved to 12.4 per cent, from November’s 30.5 per cent.

“More than 6 per cent of the growth has been contributed by petroleum products. More importantly, labour-intensive sectors like garments, carpets, handicrafts, and man-made textiles are exhibiting negative growth, primarily due to liquidity crunch because of funds getting blocked under the goods and services tax regime,” Ganesh Kumar Gupta, president of the Federation of Indian Exports Organisations, said. Of the 30 major product groups, 20 were in positive territory in January, against 21 in December.

On the other hand, the figures made clear that India is set to overshoot in 2017-18 the $380.36 billion import bill of the previous financial year. The pace of imports continued to quicken for the third straight month, leading to inbound shipments in January rising by 26.10 per cent, higher than the 21.1 per cent rise in the previous month. This makes the cumulative import bill for the first 10 months of the current financial year $379 billion.
The trade deficit widened to a 56-month high of $16.3 billion in January, against the $14.9 billion deficit in December and $9.91 billion registered a year ago in January 2017.
In this financial year, the deficit increased to $131.14 billion till January, against the $114.9 billion in the corresponding period in the previous year.The deficit was fed by a huge rise in oil imports, which shot up by more than 42 per cent in January to $11.65 billion after the 34.9 per cent rise in the previous month.
However, gold imports slipped by 22.07 per cent to $1.59 billion after the 71.5 per cent jump in the previous month.The dip in gold imports was more than offset by higher imports of silver, pearls, and precious and semi-precious stones, said Aditi Nayar, principal economist, Icra.
Non-oil and non-gold imports, taken as a sign of industrial demand, rose 24.43 per cent in January, after rising 12.9 per cent in December. This implies that the recent, strong pickup in industrial production may continue over the coming months. Index of industrial production growth in December stood at 7.1 per cent. A sizeable chunk of India’s major export segments, including refinery products, saw a faster growth rate of 39.5 per cent in January, against the 25.15 per cent rise in December. Pharmaceuticals rose 8.6 per cent from 6.95 per cent in December and organic and inorganic chemicals by 33.6 per cent from 31.36 per cent in the previous month.
The Business Standard, New Delhi, 16th February, 2018

......

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

RBI deputy governor cautions fintech platform lenders on privacy concerns during loan recovery

By
  India's digital lending infrastructure has made the loan sanctioning system online. Yet, loan recovery still needs a “feet on the street” approach, Swaminathan J, deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India, said at a media event on Tuesday, September 2, according to news agency ANI.According to the ANI report, the deputy governor flagged that fintech operators in the digital lending segment are giving out loans to customers with poor credit profiles and later using aggressive recovery tactics.“While loan sanctioning and disbursement have become increasingly digital, effective collection and recovery still require a 'feet on the street' and empathetic approach. Many fintech platforms operate on a business model that involves extending small-value loans to customers often with poor credit profiles,” Swaminathan J said.   Fintech platforms' business models The central bank deputy governor highlighted that many fintech platforms' business models involve providing sm
Post a Comment
Read more

Credit card spending growth declines on RBI gaze, stress build-up

By
  Credit card spends have further slowed down to 16.6 per cent in the current financial year (FY25), following the Reserve Bank of India’s tightening of unsecured lending norms and rising delinquencies, and increased stress in the portfolio.Typically, during the festival season (September–December), credit card spends peak as several credit card-issuing banks offer discounts and cashbacks on e-commerce and other platforms. This is a reversal of trend in the past three financial years stretching to FY21 due to RBI’s restrictions.In the previous financial year (FY24), credit card spends rose by 27.8 per cent, but were low compared to FY23 which surged by 47.5 per cent. In FY22, the spending increased 54.1 per cent, according to data compiled by Macquarie Research.ICICI Bank recorded 4.4 per cent gross credit losses in its FY24 credit card portfolio as against 3.2 per cent year-on-year. SBI Cards’ credit losses in the segment stood at 7.4 per cent in FY24 and 6.2 per cent in FY23, the rep
Post a Comment
Read more

India can't rely on wealthy to drive growth: Ex-RBI Dy Guv Viral Acharya

By
  India can’t rely on wealthy individuals to drive growth and expect the overall economy to improve, Viral Acharya, former deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Monday.Acharya, who is the C V Starr Professor of Economics in the Department of Finance at New York University’s Stern School of Business (NYU-Stern), said after the Covid-19 pandemic, rural consumption and investments have weakened.We can’t be pumping our growth through the rich and expect that the economy as a whole will do better,” he said while speaking at an event organised by Elara Capital here.f there has to be a trickle-down, it should have actually happened by now,” Acharya said, adding that when the rich keep getting wealthier and wealthier, they have a savings problem.   “The bank account keeps getting bigger, hence they look for financial assets to invest in. India is closed, so our money can't go outside India that easily. So, it has to chase the limited financial assets in the country and
Post a Comment
Read more