Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said the country has achieved the highest-ever goods exports target of $400 billion during the current financial year, a 37 per cent jump over the previous fiscal. The exports in FY2020-21 had stood at $292 billion.
“India set an ambitious target of $400 billion of goods exports and achieves this target for the first time ever. I congratulate our farmers, weavers, MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises), manufacturers and exporters for this success,” the prime minister said in a tweet.
The exports target for 2021-22 was achieved on March 22, nine days ahead of its schedule, according to the tweet. “This is a key milestone in our Aatmanirbhar Bharat journey. #LocalGoesGlobal,” he added.
During the current financial year, an average of $46 million worth of exports were done every hour, the tweet said.
The commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal earlier said during the question hour in Lok Sabha, “For 10th month in a row, April 2021 to January 2022, India has posted over USD 30 billion of exports. It is a record, we have already crossed $334 billion of exports which is more than the highest ever that India has done in full 12 months period. We are well on track to achieve $400 billion of exports.”
While sharing the exports data, the prime minister also mentioned actively engaging exports promotion councils, the government’s approach at states and districts levels, and closer engagements with exporters and faster resolution of issues.
India’s merchandise export in April 2021-February 2022 was $374.05 billion, an increase of 45.80 per cent over $256.55 billion in April 2020-February 2021 and an increase of 28.16 per cent over $291.87 billion in April 2019-February 2020.
The country’s merchandise import in April 2021-February 2022 was $550.12 billion, an increase of 59.21 per cent over $345.54 billion in April 2020-February 2021 and an increase of 24.11 per cent over $443.24 billion in April 2019-February 2020.
The trade deficit during April 2021-February 2022 stood at $176.07 billion.
The cumulative value of non-petroleum exports in April 2021-February 2022 was $319.09 billion, an increase of 36.16 per cent over $234.36 billion in April 2020-February 2021 and an increase of 26.07 per cent over $253.10 billion in April 2019-February 2020.