Growing for the third month in a row, India's exports rose 11.5 per cent in January, signalling that demand for the country's merchandise is renewing in the global markets.
Exports increased to USD 14.34 billion in January against USD 12.86 billion in the same month a year ago. In November and December also, exports grew 18.2 per cent and 9.3 per cent respectively. Prior to that, they fell continuously for 13 months since October 2008 impacted by the global meltdown.
Analysts said the rising trend in the past three months shows that the worst is behind. "Our exports are coming out of the woods," Rakesh Mohan Joshi of the IIFT said.
Imports too turned positive on the back of growing economic activities, almost doubling the trade deficit to USD 10.36 billion from USD 5.3 billion in January 2009, according to official data released Tuesday. Imports went up by 35.5 per
cent to USD 24.70 billion from USD 18.22 billion.
It is for the second month that imports are clocking growth after falling for 11 months in a row.
"Strong domestic demand, a shortfall in agriculture production and rising commodity prices have been the major factors behind strong import growth," said Nikhilesh Bhattacharyya, Associate Economist, Moody's Economy.com.
However, exports during April-January were negative as for most part of the 10-month period outward shipments saw big drops. The consignments declined 17.8 per cent to USD 131.93 billion against USD 160.43 billion in the same period of the
previous fiscal.