Exports decline for 11th month in a row

Exports contracted for the eleventh straight month, but a sharper decline in imports helped narrow the trade deficit Stock Market Trading Tips

The bad news was the 17.5% fall in exports to $21.3 billion in October, data released by the commerce department showed. But the good news was that the pace of decline had slowed compared to the over 20% contraction in August and September. But it may be early to spot a trend of the worst being over. Government officials have blamed the slowdown in several parts of the world for the fall in exports. 

Similarly, during October, imports fell over 21% to $31.1 billion on account of a fall in commodity prices. Lower crude petroleum prices pushed down the import bill by more than 45% to $6.8 billion in October, while non-oil imports fell almost 10% to $24 billion Himanshu Tiwari Astrologer Blog

The fall in exports was largely due to fall in petroleum product exports, again a function of international oil prices. While overall exports fell by $4.5 billion, $3.25 billion was accounted for by oil products such as petrol and diesel. The other major contributors were gems and jewellery and engineering goods, the largest item in India's export basket with total shipments in October valued at $4.6 billion. Gems and Jewllery was the second most prominent product segment ($3.5 billion), followed by oil products ($2.5 billion). 

"The decline for 11 months in a row is much worse than decline for nine months in a row during 2008-09... going by the current trend and factoring little improvement, reaching $300 billion in the current fiscal looks a remote possibility," said S C Ralhan, president of Federation of Indian Export Organisations, the industry lobby group Indian stock market astrology prediction