India’s Merchandise Exports Plunge over 36% in May

A cargo ship. Image used for representational purposes.

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COVID-19 continued to subdue global trade and consequently, plunged India's merchandise exports in May by over 36 percent on a year-on-year basis.

The country's exports fell during the month under review to $19.05 billion from $29.99 billion reported for the corresponding period of the previous year. The country's merchandise exports in April had plunged by over 60 percent YoY to $10.36 billion from $26.07 billion reported for April of the previous year.

“Except for iron ore, drugs and pharmaceuticals, spices and rice which registered a growth of 103.04 percent, 17.32 percent, 10.55 percent and 7.64 percent respectively, all other commodity or commodity groups have registered negative growth in May 2020 vis-a-vis May 2019,” the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in a statement.

However, the country's imports declined at a far higher rate than exports in May.

India's May imports declined by 51.05 percent to $22.20 billion from $45.35 billion reported for the corresponding month of 2019. Last month, imports had declined by 58.65 percent to $17.12 billion from $41.40 billion reported for the corresponding month of 2019.

“Oil imports in May 2020 were $3.49 billion which was 71.98 per cent lower in Dollar terms (69.62 per cent lower in Rupee terms), compared to $12.44 billion (Rs 86,822.36 crore) in May 2019,” the statement said .

“’Non-Oil and Non-Gold' imports were $18.64 billion in May 2020, recording a negative growth of (-) 33.74 per cent, as compared to 'Non-Oil and Non-Gold' imports of $28.13 billion in May 2019.”