India’s Export Success in October 2024
Record-Breaking Export Growth
In October 2024, India’s exports saw a significant increase, with a surge of over 19%. According to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, merchandise exports rose by over 17%, while services exports increased by over 21%.
Commerce Secretary’s Optimism
Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal expressed his enthusiasm about the trade data, stating that the period from April to October marked the highest non-petroleum exports in India’s history. The total exports during this time reached approximately USD 468.27 billion, showing a 7.28% year-on-year growth.
Future Goals and Strategies
Barthwal is hopeful that India will surpass USD 800 billion in exports for the fiscal year 2025. He attributed this success to the government’s strategic focus on specific sectors and countries, as well as improved manufacturing competitiveness due to the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme.
Sectoral Growth
Key sectors such as engineering, electronics, and chemicals have shown remarkable growth, with engineering goods exports increasing by over 39%, electronic goods by over 45%, and chemical exports by over 27%. Rice exports also saw a significant rise of over 85%.
Challenges Ahead
Despite the positive export growth, the trade deficit widened from USD 60.02 billion to USD 63.24 billion in 2024-25, posing a challenge for the government. However, the overall trade deficit has decreased from USD 121.6 billion in 2022-23 to USD 75.6 billion in 2023-24.
Doubts Revealed
Exports -: Exports are goods or services that a country sells to other countries. It’s like when India makes something and sends it to another country to sell.
Commerce Secretary -: The Commerce Secretary is a high-ranking official in the government who helps manage and promote trade and business activities for the country. Sunil Barthwal is the person in this role for India.
Non-petroleum exports -: Non-petroleum exports are goods that are sold to other countries, excluding oil and gas products. This includes things like clothes, electronics, and machinery.
USD 468.27 billion -: USD 468.27 billion is a very large amount of money, measured in US dollars, which is used to show how much India earned from selling goods to other countries from April to October.
FY25 -: FY25 stands for Fiscal Year 2025, which is a one-year period used by the government for accounting and budget purposes. It usually starts on April 1, 2024, and ends on March 31, 2025, in India.
Trade deficit -: A trade deficit happens when a country buys more from other countries than it sells to them. In this case, India bought more goods from other countries than it sold, leading to a deficit of USD 63.24 billion.
