New Delhi, April 30 (Inditop) India’s exports to the US have fallen by 11.5 percent in the five-month period since last October, said the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), adding that this was a “matter of deep concern”.
“The sharp decline in our exports to the US that accounts for 13 percent of our global exports is a matter of deep concern,” FICCI president Harshpati Singhania said in a statement Thursday.
“This is more so as FICCI analysis shows that India’s exports have declined more sharply than those of China, Korea and Brazil, while the US-bound exports from Ireland, Indonesia and Vietnam actually grew by 3-12 percent,” Singhania added.
FICCI said in January and February this year, exports to the US declined 23 percent. “For the entire five-month period ending February 2009, India’s performance, however, was better than Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, Russia and Singapore,” the chamber said.
Despite the overall fall in exports to the US, six important product groups registered an increase. Interestingly, these were in areas where total American imports actually shrank since last October.
“Machinery parts witnessed a 19 percent rise from $993 million to $1.2 billion (against 15.4 percent contraction in US global imports of this item), while chemicals recorded an increase of over 14 percent from $851 million to $974 million (against 1.5 percent decrease in US global imports of this product),” FICCI said.
Similarly, it added, exports of iron and steel grew 14 percent.
Exports of two principal commodities from India fell since last October, even as select competitor countries registered growth in the same period.
In textiles and apparel, Bangladesh and Vietnam have expanded their exports by 18 and 9 percent respectively, followed by China, Indonesia and Pakistan. In contrast, India’s exports in this category fell 6.5 percent.
Similarly in pharmaceuticals, exports from China, Israel and South Korea moved up 27 to 41 percent as compared with significant decline of 37 percent in India’s exports to the US. “This is a source of worry and the government has to look into specific measures to reverse such trend,” Singhania said.
