Exports rise 6% to $447 billion in FY23

The country's exports rose by about 6 per cent to a record $447 billion during 2022-23 on account of healthy growth in the outbound shipments of sectors such as petroleum, pharma and chemicals and marine, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday. The country's imports also grew by 16.5 per cent to $714 billion in 2022-23 as against $613 billion in 2021-22. India's merchandise trade deficit in March 2023 stood at $19.73 billion, which was 13.93 per cent higher than $17.43 billion recorded in the previous month, according to government data.

Goyal said that the exports of goods and services together scaled new heights and has increased by 14 per cent to $770 billion in 2022-23 as against $676 billion in 2021-22.

"I am delighted to share with you the outstanding export performance for 2022-23, with India's overall exports scaling new heights at $770 billion, registering 14 per cent growth over the previous year and all-time high record growing from $500 billion in 2020-21 to $676 billion in 2021-22," the minister told.

Goyal is on a three-day visit to France and Italy from April 11-13 to hold a series of meetings with leaders and top CEOs in these two countries to further boost trade and investment ties. India's services exports too have increased by 27.16 per cent to $323 billion in 2022-23 as compared to $254 billion in 2021-22.

"This is truly a sign of India's expanding our international footprints," he added. The overall imports of goods and services have touched $892 billion and it reflects that the country's economic activities are growing and that has supported the exports. Talking to reporters here, Goyal said that the growth in exports would help in containing the current account deficit. In the services sector, there is a healthy growth in areas including IT, accounting and business processing. In the goods segment, sectors which recorded growth include oil meals, electronic goods, tobacco, oil seeds, rice, coffee, fruits and vegetables, leather goods, ceramic, pharma, marine products, chemicals, and ready-made garments of textiles. Services imports are estimated at $178 billion in 2022-23 as against $147 billion a year ago.