February exports rise 25.1% YoY as global orders remain strong

Representative image: Reuters

Owing to strong global orders, India's merchandise exports rose 25.1 percent in February this year as compared to February 2021. Impressively, exports also rose by more than 24.6 percent as compared to two years back or February 2020, just before the Covid-19 pandemic struck.

Final data for February released by the Commerce and Industry Ministry on March 14 showed outbound trade rose to $34.5 billion in February, up from $27.63 billion in February 2020.

Cumulatively, exports grew 46 percent in the April-February period of FY22 (2021-22) as compared to the same period of 2020, to register total exports worth $374.8 billion. In 2019-20, only the last two months of which had an economic downturn owing to the COVID pandemic, the cumulative exports over the corresponding period was $256.5 billion, the ministry said.

After a difficult FY21 (2020-21) marked by lockdowns and restrictions, exports had begun rising at the end of the financial year. In the current financial year, exports have risen every month till February.

Among export categories, higher global prices led to 88 percent higher exports of petroleum products. Both electronic and engineering goods registered more than 30 percent growth respectively. Apparels and gems and jewellery had 18 percent growth. Interestingly, pharma exports fell 1.8 percent in February.

As of February, non-petroleum and non-gems & jewellery exports stood at $26.75 billion, registering growth of 19 percent over non-petroleum and non-gems & jewellery exports of $22.5 billion in February 2021, and growth of 25.7 percent over February 2020. Policymakers point to this as a claim of the robust health of the export sector.

Imports in February rose 36 percent to $55.5 billion. As a result, cumulative imports in the first 11 months of FY22 stood at $550.1 billion. This was 59 percent higher than the $345 billion worth of imports registered in the same period of FY21.