India’s merchandise exports rose over 15 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) in April-August, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said on Wednesday. This suggests India’s goods exports, which were $183 billion in April-August of the last financial year, have comfortably surpassed $200 billion in the first five months of the current year.
“Despite all the global turmoil that the world is going through today, I am happy to share that our merchandise exports have grown by upwards of 15 per cent between April and August,” Goyal said at the Brics Women’s Business Alliance Summit in New Delhi.
The Department of Commerce is likely to detail the trade data for August on September 15. In April-July, India’s merchandise exports recorded growth of 17 per cent Y-o-Y to $174 billion, according to the latest official data released by the government.
The sharp growth in merchandise exports comes in a year when India has set an ambitious total exports target of $1 trillion. The trade agreements finalised by New Delhi in recent years are likely to support India in meeting the target, Goyal said.
“In the last four and a half years, we have finalized trading arrangements for referential access to Indian goods and services with 38 developed economies, opening two-third of global trade for us. And in the next year and a half, we will expand this to 60 to 75 economies.”
India has concluded eight trade agreements over the past five years, with partners including the United Kingdom (UK), the European Union (EU), the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), New Zealand and Australia, among others. In the current year so far, New Delhi has already implemented two trade deals — with Oman and the UK — and is likely to implement at least one more, with New Zealand, by March.
