Pharma, engineering sectors drive India’s exports up 16.2% in Jan first week

The country’s exports grew 16.22 per cent year-on-year to $6.21 billion in the first week of January, mainly driven by healthy growth in pharmaceuticals, and engineering sectors, reflecting signs of revival, an official said on Sunday. The exports during the first week of January last year were at $5.34 billion.

Imports during January 1-7 this year too increased by 1.07 per cent to $8.7 billion as against $8.6 billion in the same period of 2020, the official said. Imports, excluding petroleum, increased by 6.56 per cent during the week, the official added.

Exports of pharmaceuticals, petroleum and engineering grew 14.4 per cent ($61.62 million), 17.28 per cent ($114.72 million), and and 51.82 per cent ($636.77 million), respectively. The rate of contraction in the outbound shipments was 8.74 per cent in November 2020. The country’s exports had shrunk marginally by 0.8 per cent in December 2020.

The improvement was mainly due to the increase in shipments of certain sectors such as gems and jewellery, engineering and chemicals. After a gap of nine months, imports in December 2020 had recorded a positive growth of 7.6 per cent at $42.6 billion.