After a poor start in April, exports recovered in May, the second month of this fiscal, posting a double digit growth at 13.53 per cent. Cumulative exports in April-May also posted a 11.12 per cent growth over the same period last year. The performance was largely due to the sharp increase in exports of items such as engineering, electronic goods, petroleum products, man-made fibres as well as yarns, say commerce ministry officials.Exports in May 2003 were valued at $4,520.93 million against $3,982.21 million in May last year while cumulative exports in April-May 2003 were valued at $8,863.59 million against $7,976.88 million in April-May 2002, according to provisional foreign trade data released by the ministry on Tuesday. Imports during April-May 2003 at $11,223.48 million were sharply up by 19.55 per cent over the level of $9,388.20 million in the corresponding period last year. Oil imports recorded an increase of just 4.48 per cent at $2,917.75 million against $2,792.58 million. On the other hand, non-oil imports during the same period at $8,305.73 million rose sharply by 25.93 per cent over the level of $6,595.62 million.The data reveals that imports during May 2003 were valued at $5,625.23 million a 8.7 per cent increase over those valued at $5,180.98 million in May 2002.Dr Rajesh Chadha of the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) says the performance on the trade front is ‘‘satisfactory with a reasonable increase in exports at 11.12 per cent during April-May 03’’, adding that it was nowhere close to the 12 per cent growth target fixed by the commerce ministry for 2003-04. On the other hand, the 25.93 per cent growth in non-oil imports during April-May 2003 is ‘‘indicative of a reasonable domestic activity, though I would have liked it more’’.In value terms, the 12 per cent export growth target for 2003-04 works out to $57.8 billion against the achievement of $51.7 billion during 2002-03. The target has been fixed after taking into account the prevailing global economic and trading environment, the outlook for this fiscal as projected by international agencies tracking global economic developments and the perceptions of the exporting community.
