The overall export performance from the country has shown an encouraging trend in December 2008, but shipments of handlooms and handicrafts have fallen by a staggering 64 percent. Though a negative growth was registered in the overall export basket in the month of December, the sharp fall of the two preceding months has been arrested.
The export value of all sectors from the country stood at US $12.7 billion, to register a negative growth rate of a meager 1.1 percent. The decline in exports rates in the months of October and November 2008 stood much higher at 12.1 and 9.9 percent respectively.
The sector which was the worst to be affected was the handlooms and handicrafts industry which saw shipments plunging by an awesome 64 percent. Exports of textiles also witnessed a slide, by recording a negative growth rate of 13 percent corresponding to December 2007.
The gems and jewellery industry as well as the chemicals industry also saw exports plummet by as much as 21 percent compared to the same period of 2007. The sectors which contributed to the arrest of the fall in exports in December were the pharmaceuticals, engineering goods and agricultural sectors. Exports from these sectors rose by an average 19-25 percent.
As of end of December 2008, the collective value of all exports in the current fiscal (2008-09) beginning April touched $131.99 billion against $112.73 billion registered in the same period of the previous fiscal. The export targets for the fiscal have been set at $200 billion which seems improbable even if the situation improves in the last quarter of the current fiscal year.
Source: www.fibre2fashion.com