Exports share of GDP reached its lowest in Q3 as sector waits for manufacturing to fully fire up

With an 18.6 percent share of India's Gross Domestic Product, the third quarter (October-December) of 2020-21 saw the contribution of exports to economic growth drop to its lowest in the current financial year. Analysts and exporters say that this is not expected to improve in the next quarter, given the poor performance of outbound trade in the current quarter.

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen export growth severely falter due to multiple national and regional lockdowns. As a result, exports commanded a 21.1 percent share of GDP in the preceding second quarter and a 20.5 percent share in the first quarter. But with the manufacturing sector still under stress, export of finished goods has been slow to take off in the current quarter as well.

According to the GDP data released on February 26, manufacturing grew by 1.6 percent in the third quarter. Manufacturing had contracted by a major 35 percent in the first quarter, but had significantly recovered to just a 1.5 percent contraction in the second quarter. The slow pace of recovery seen in the latest data has been attributed to particular challenges in select areas of the economy.

Economists particularly point to the low pace of overall industrial growth. The Index of Industrial Production rose 1.6 percent in December, up from the 1.9 percent fall in November and is not expected to do any better in January. "With the core infrastructure industries having grown in only three months namely September, December and January, overall industrial growth in January 2021 would barely manage to slip into positive territory," Devendra Kumar Pant, Chief Economist at India Ratings, said.