Despite Slowdown And Rising Protectionism, FY19 Exports Set To Surpass UPA 2 Record; Trade Deficit At 17-Month Low 

Despite major headwinds like global economic slowdown and rising protectionism amidst US-China trade war and US President Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ posture, Indian exports in the current fiscal are set to surpass the record growth achieved in the last year of UPA 2, reports Economic Times.

The year-end rush could easily add to the April-February export figures of $298.5 billion to take the cumulative exports well past the $314 billion achieved in the last year of the Congress-led UPA 2 government.

India witnessed a healthy growth rate of 8.8 per cent over the corresponding figure for last year. The trade deficit reached a 17-month low in February as exports for the morth surpassed last year’s figure by 2.44 per cent. At the same time, the imports contracted by 5.4 per cent. This brought down the trade deficit to $9.6 billion as compared to $12.3 billion in February of the previous year.

At the Global Business Summit,organised by ET, union minister Suresh Prabhu said hinted at forging strategic partnerships to boost India’s exports. Such strategic partnerships which involves a geographic-specific and a product-specific approach at expanding India's market share to boost exports are being established with countries in Latin America, Africa and West Asia, the minister said.