India’s exports jumped to an all-time high of $418 billion in FY22 on higher shipments of petroleum products, engineering goods, gems and jewellery and chemicals, according to official data released on Sunday.
The shipments were over 40 per cent higher than last year and 33 per cent over the pre-pandemic levels of 2019-20.
Engineering goods exports hit a record $111 billion, of which about $16 billion worth of goods were shipped to the US alone.
“We exceeded $40 billion in March alone which is the highest export in a single month in history,” commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said. Exports stood at $292 billion in FY 2020-21.
Aditi Nayar, chief economist, Icra said: “Even though a portion of the upside may have been led by rising commodity prices, the performance has been laudable,” she said. “We expect the current account deficit to recede under $20 billion in Q4 FY22.”
The government must now allow the transfer of Merchandise Exports from India Scheme scrips and increase their validity to 24 months, A. Sakthivel, the president of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations, said.
He said the scheme on remission of duties and taxes on exportable products be extended to EoUs.
Director general of foreign trade (DGFT) Santosh Sarangi said exports were not confined to intermediate goods or raw materials, but are gradually moving towards manufactured goods.
Wheat exports are likely is cross 10 million tonnes (mt) during 2022-23 due to increasing demand for the commodity in the world market after the Ukraine war, Goyal said. Exports stood at 7mt in 2021-22 and 2mt in 2020-21.
have crossed 70 lakh tonnes in 2021-22 (worth over Rs 15,000 crore) as against 21.55 lakh tonnes (over Rs 4,000 crore) in 2020-21. Sarangi said India has seen a significant jump in exports to developed markets as well such as the USA, Netherlands, Singapore, Hong Kong, UK, Belgium, Germany. On the contrary, till now substantial amounts of goods were exported to neighbouring countries, predominantly to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
