January exports rise 23% Y-o-Y led by continuing strong global orders.

Owing to strong global orders, India's merchandise exports rose by 23.7 percent in January this year as compared to January 2021. Impressively, exports also rose by more than 31 percent as compared to January 2020, just before the pandemic struck.

Data released by the Commerce and Industry Ministry on February 2 showed outbound trade rose to $34 billion in January, up from $25.85 billion in January 2020. However, export growth in the latest month came down from the 38.9 percent rise seen in December 2021.

Cumulatively, exports grew by 46.5 percent in the April-January period of FY22 (2021-22) as compared to the same period of 2020, to register total exports worth $335.4 billion. In 2019-20, only the last 2-months of which an economic downturn owing to the COVID pandemic, the cumulative exports over the corresponding period was $264 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 January.

Official statistics show exports of engineering goods continued to dominate India's overall trade. Engineering exports touched $9.2 billion in January, making up a 27 percent share of the export basket.

Processed petroleum was the second-largest export category, seeing the biggest growth in January as exports rose by 74 percent to $3.7 billion, owing to higher global crude oil prices. This was followed by $3.2 billion worth of gems and jewelry, which rose by 13.8 percent.

All other major export segments such as electronics, textiles, and pharma also saw major growth over the latest month. Exporters say there has been a continued revival not only in the order booking positions but also in the demand from across the globe.

The value of non-petroleum and non-gems and jewellery exports in January 2022 was $27 billion, registering an annual growth of 20.1 percent and a growth of 36.9 percent increase over exports from the category in January 2020.

The government has not disclosed the data for imports. India's imports have risen by equally large margins over the past few months. In the previous month of December, imports had shot up by 38.5 percent to $59.5 billion owing to burgeoning crude oil imports.