NEW DELHI, July 21 (Reuters) - India may consider more relief measures for exporters at the trade policy review in August as the global slump continues to plague the sector, the country's trade minister said on Tuesday.
"We will see what best we can do to make Indian exports competitive globally," Anand Sharma told reporters. "We are working on that."
Exports, which make up close to a fifth of India's gross domestic product, have been falling since October, and stood at $168.7 billion for 2008/09 (April/March), slightly higher than $163 billion in the previous year.
Exports fell an annual 29.2 percent in May, and policy makers expect the slide to continue until September as global trade shows no sign of an upturn.
The World Bank has forecast global trade to shrink 6.1 percent this year, while World Trade Organisation forecast a 9 percent contraction as a result of the worst global economic crisis seen since the Great Depression.
Since October, India's central bank has aggressively lowered its lending rate by 425 basis points, while the government offered interest subsidies to help ease the pain of exporting firms and prevent job losses.
Last week, the Federation of Indian Export Organisation said the government should extend a duty refund scheme for next five years, offer interest subsidies until December 2010 and exempt exporting firms from state-level levies to help revive exports.
Source : REUTERS