The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : India’s trade deficit to come down

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 18, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

India’s trade deficit to come down

Special Correspondent

Thanks to drop in global crude prices and decrease in imports volume

“There has been a drop of 16-17 per cent in exports growth this fiscal”
“India’s exports target of $200 billion will come down to $170 billion”

CHENNAI: India’s trade deficit for the current year will come down by nearly 20-25 per cent as against the previous year due to a drop in global crude prices, commodity prices and decrease in imports volume, R. Gopalan, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Commerce, said here on Tuesday.

Delivering the special address at India Maritime Summit 2009 on ‘Challenges of the changing global economic landscape,’ organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, he said that a reduction in India’s exports volume due to economic slowdown would be compensated by reduction in imports volume and hence India would end the current year with a trade deficit of $75-80 billion as against $100 billion in the previous year.

Mr. Gopalan said that there was a drop of 16-17 per cent in exports growth this fiscal. From April to December 2008, the growth rate was 17 per cent as compared to the annual average growth rate of 29.4 per cent for the same period from 2003-2008. India’s exports target of $200 billion would come down to $170 billion, as compared to $162 billion last year.

Job losses

Speaking about the job loss due to the current slowdown in the country, he said according to the Labour Ministry, between April 2008 and January 2009, it was to the extent of 5 lakh and was expected to touch 10 million. The worst-hit sector was manufacturing, especially merchandise.

A.P.V.N Sarma, Shipping Secretary said that the Centre was committed to making the Indian shipping industry globally competitive in the current scenario of global slowdown. He cited that the overall tonnage capacity of Indian ships and ports that had increased the development of the shipping industry in a big way. Lakshmi Venkatachalam, Director General of Shipping, Additional Secretary, called for developing a policy framework for the overall growth of the Indian shipping industry. Emphasis should be given to trade transport with focus on supply chain management, processing and port catalysts for trade.

S. Hajara, Shipping Corporation of India, Chairman and Managing Director, outlined a few strategies to beat the downturn, which included freight rate risk management.

Yudhishthir D. Khatau, India Maritime Summit 2009 Chairman, urged the Centre to provide infrastructure status to the shipping sector, ensure adequate availability of funds for shipping companies and make substantial changes in taxation policy.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu