New Delhi, Feb 15 (Mayank Nigam) Led by petroleum products, engineering goods and chemicals among other key segments, India’s merchandise exports surged 25 per cent year-on-year to $ 34.5 billion in the month of January, 2022 as against $ 27.54 billion in the same month of the previous year. Merchandise imports during this period stood at $ 51.93 billion, up 23.54 per cent over imports of $ 42.03 billion in January 2021. The trade deficit in January 2022 was $ 17.43 billion. Higher imports indicated increased economic activities in the country on the back on wider vaccine coverage, broad-based recovery and improvement in domestic demand.
“India’s overall exports (merchandise and services combined) in January 2022 are estimated to be $ 61.41 billion, exhibiting a positive growth of 36.76 per cent over the same period last year and a positive growth of 38.90 per cent over January 2020,” said Commerce Ministry. As per the official data released by Commerce Ministry on Tuesday, merchandise exports for the period April-January 2021-22 was $ 335.88 billion as against $ 228.92 billion during the same period of 2020-21 registering a positive growth of 46.73 per cent.
Amid expectations that monthly exports in the remaining period of the fiscal would be robust, India seems inching closer to the merchandise export target of $ 400 billion set for the full financial year. Among the key sectors that have driven high growth in exports are engineering goods, gems and jewelleries, textile, petroleum products and chemicals. “On the back of strong recovery in advanced economies and government’s aggressive exports push, engineering goods export is well on track to achieve the $ 107 billion target set for the current fiscal,” EEPC India Chairman Mahesh Desai said.