Blogs

The exports have recorded an outstanding performance during the 2018-19 fiscal (with respect to the months of April and March), which have amounted to an incredible cumulative value of $331.02 billion. This has surpassed the $303.53 billion mark that was registered in 2017-18 by amounting to a much-appreciated jump by 9.06 per cent in dollar terms. If we focus on the exports in March 2019, the value was settled at $32.55 billion when it was just $29.32 billion during the same month in the previous year. Thus, the positive growth in dollar terms could be attested at 11.02 per cent. According to the reports, the major, export-related commodity groups that have displayed a remarkable growth over the corresponding month (in last year) happen to be organic and inorganic chemicals at 16.98 percent, followed by engineering goods at 16.27 percent, then RMG  of all textiles at 15.13 percent, drugs and pharmaceuticals at 13.59 percent and last but not least, petroleum products at 6.55 percent. If we focus on the exports related to non-petroleum, jewellery and non-gems during the month of March, the total amounted to $25.59 billion and displayed a growth curve by 13.41 percent from the $22.57 billion mark in the previous year. Coming to the imports sector, the final value had amounted to an incredible $43.44 billion that was higher by 1.44 percent than the $42.82 billion mark in 2018. Even there was a marked improvement in the cumulative value of imports for the April-March period in 2018-19 as the result was $507.44 billion, which is simply great an achievement as compared to $465.58 billion in the last period. However, a few commodity groups have recorded a negative performance during March, such as machinery, electrical and non-electrical (-5.74 percent), coal, coke and briquettes (-14.85 percent), electronic goods (-5.69 percent), electronic goods (-5.69 percent), organic and inorganic chemicals (-6.35 percent), and pearls, precious and semi-precious stones (-1.03 percent). Now, coming to the oil imports during the month of March 2019, a growth of 5.55 percent was recorded and the final figure was registered at $11.75 billion as compared to the $11.13 billion in last year. Plus, the oil imports underwent a huge surge in growth as $140.47 billion was recorded in the April-March period of 2018-19. This growth of 29.27 percent was much appreciated because only $108.66 billion had been achieved during the previous period. If we shift focus to the non-oil imports in March 2019, the result was surprisingly similar (only in dollar terms and not in rupee terms) to the one recorded in last year - $31.69 billion. There has been a slight growth in non-oil imports in the period of April-March 2018-19 at $366.97 billion, when compared to $356.92 billion during the last period. In the case of non-gold and non-oil imports, a negative growth of 2.67 percent was registered for $28.42 billion in March 2019 as compared to the situation in 2018. Also, the final figure for the non-oil and non-gold imports in April-March of the 2018-19 period after a positive growth of 3.37 percent was recorded, as we draw a comparison with the earlier situation in April-March 2017-18.