By IANS,
New Delhi : Despite the recovery in exports since November last year, merchandise shipments in the 2009-10 fiscal are expected to be around $170 billion, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said here Tuesday.
“We have not been able to meet the shortfall in exports due to the global meltdown. We expect the exports to be somewhere around $170 billion in the last fiscal,” he told reporters here.
India’s exports in fiscal 2008-09 were $119.3 billion. They were $162.9 billion in 2007-2008.
“We are competing with a low base,” said Sharma on the sidelines of a conference organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
“We want to raise our exports with market expansion and diversification.”
He hoped exports in the January-March quarter of the last fiscal would help overcome the losses which continued for 13 months till November last year.
India’s merchandise exports grew 34.8 percent to $16.09 billion (Rs.72,400 crore) for the fourth consecutive month in February and could grow 15-20 percent in the current fiscal.