October exports rise 43% Y-o-Y led by strong global orders

Representational Image. Source: Reuters

Owing to strong global orders, India's merchandise exports rose by 43 percent in October this year as compared to same period previous year. Impressively, exports also rose by nearly 40 percent as compared to October 2019, before the pandemic struck.

Data released by the Commerce and Industry Ministry on November 15 showed outbound trade rise to $35.65 billion in October, up from $ 24.92 billion in October 2020.

Cumulatively, exports have grown by 55 percent in the April-October period of FY22 (2021-22) as compared to the same period of 2020. Compared to 2019, exports have gone up by 26 percent over the same period, the Ministry said.

After a difficult FY21 (2020-21), exports had begun rising since December. In February, before the low base effect kicked in, growth was a marginal 0.67 percent. Since then, calculated annually (Y-o-Y), exports had seen major growth owing to the low base effect which has now worn off, officials say.

In October, imports saw an equally large rise, going up a massive 62.5 percent to $55 billion. This was a continuing trend from the past month when import growth had been more than 84 percent. It had been slowly reducing before that. Experts say this bodes well for the economy, signifying the return of industrial and consumer demand.

Similar to exports, as the low base wears off, the jumps in import growth have moderated. Imports had risen by 51.5 percent in August, 62.9 percent in July, 98.3 percent in June, 73.6 percent in May, and 163 percent in April.