Winter chill grips economy

Outbound shipments stood at $19.9 billion,gradually dropping over the past few months,barring July when it grew a staggering 82 per cent at $29.3 billion.

“Clearly you are having a difficult autumn,” commerce secretary Rahul Khullar told reporters.

While exports slowed down,imports jumped 21.7 per cent to $39.5 billion in October,widening the balance of trade to $ 19.6 billion.

For the first seven months,exports totalled $179.8 billion,up 46 per cent. Imports stood at $273.5 billion (up 31 per cent) during the period with the balance of trade at $93.7 billion.

“The picture is not going to be rosy for the next six months… The balance of trade is something to be very worried about because at this rate,it is going to breach $150 billion mark (for 2011-12),” Khullar said.

In the month of October,most sectors registered a decline in exports growth.

Engineering and petroleum exports grew a meagre 2.6 per cent and 9.4 per cent to $4.4 billion and $9.4 billion,respectively.

In fact,“in any sector,it (growth) is the lowest in the last three months — the deceleration is uniform,” the secretary said.

“This is more a reflection of reality. Global recessionary tendency is growing. Even the 10 per cent rise we have seen in October is because substantial part of exports are going to Asian countries and there is a shift in distribution. India is becoming integrated with regions which are more dynamic. Share of traditional items is going down and new markets are absorbing even non-traditional products,” said Biswajit Dhar,director general,Research and Information System for developing countries.

Khullar said exports should not get lower than “what we are getting now.”

Sectors which depend heavily on the European markets have been hit. For example,electronic goods,most of which is exported to Europe. showed a deceleration of 18 per cent in October.