India's exports fall short of target

New Delhi, May 1: The Government today said the country's exports during FY08 stood at 155.51 billion dollars, as against the target of 160 billion dollars due to appreciation of rupee against the dollar. The exports, however, grew 26.59 per cent to 16.28 billion dollars in March as compared to 12.86 billion dollars for the corresponding period last year.

For the current fiscal, the government has fixed exports target of 200 billion dollars. With imports bill reaching 235.91 billion dollars in FY08, the country trade deficit ballooned to 80.39 billion dollars from 59.32 billion dollars in FY07. The exports growth in 2007-08 over 2006-07 in rupee terms was, however, 9.39 per cent due to hardening of the Indian currency against the dollar. The country's imports grew by 35.24 per cent to 23.17 billion dollars in March from 17.13 billion dollars in the same month a year ago.

Total imports in the April 2007-March 2008 fiscal went up by 27 per cent to 235.91 billion dollars from 185.73 billion dollars in the previous year. Calculated in rupee terms, the year-on-year growth was 12.92 per cent, said government data released here.

India's oil bill on account of imports in March was 8.63 billion dollars, up by 76.6 per cent from 4.88 billion dollars in the corresponding month of 2007.

Total oil imports in the year was 77.03 billion dollars, 35.28 per cent more than 56.94 billion dollars the country spent on oil imports in 2006-07.

Non-oil imports in March at 14.54 billion dollars were up 18.73 per cent from 12.24 billion dollars in March 2007.

The figure for fiscal 2007-08 stood at 158.87 billion dollars, 23.36 per cent more than 128.78 billion dollars in FY07.

UNI