The government is expecting a 16 percent growth in the merchandise export in the current financial year, a top government official said on September 25.
"Our exports have grown at 16 percent during April-August in the current year and we expect the growth rate to continue during the rest of the year," said Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan, adding that the Commerce Ministry is working on a commodity and territory-wise export strategy.
In order to achieve this target, the Ministry is engaging with exporters on a daily basis.
Exports grew 9.78 percent to $302.84 billion during 2017-18. During April-August 2018-19, grew 16.13 percent at $136.09 billion.
India is currently working on a broad policy decision to address the issue of expanding current account deficit (CAD). After meeting the Prime Minister to review the economic situation, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on September 14 had said the government will take necessary steps to cut down non-essential imports and also increase exports.
Import restrictions as well as export promotion steps will help the government control the rising CAD that has widened to $15.8 billion in April-June or 2.4 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Wadhawan said.
While depreciation in rupee has made imports more expensive, the fall in currency generally makes exports more attractive.
Rupee has fallen more than 12 percent this year, making it worst performing Asian currency. On Tuesday, the rupee closed at 72.69 per dollar.
Regarding an increase in global oil prices, Wadhawan said that it is a temporary aberration and the world will overcome the petroleum issue.
“We certainly hope that the global petroleum economy remains undisturbed by political factors," he said.
He also said that the commerce ministry hopes to make rupee payment mechanism with Russia, whereby Indian importers can pay in Indian currency. This may help the government reduce the CAD in the future as imports will be less dependent on dollars.
Source: moneycontrol.com