The country's exports are "drastically" improving with the outbound shipments contracting 36 per cent in May as compared to 60 per cent in April, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday.
"I am happy to share with you that in May, things have drastically improved and from the position of 60 per cent down in April, the May data shows that our overall exports have been down 36 per cent," he said in a webinar.
The minister added that the country's non-oil exports, excluding POL (petroleum oil and lubricant) exports, were down only 30 per cent. He said these figures provide confidence that the country is poised for a turnaround.
Goyal said the contraction rate is coming down despite the fact that the country was under lockdown during large part of May.
Further talking about June exports, he said the situation gets even more exciting as "our export in the first week of June, is at par with what it was in June 1-7, 2019".
Exports during June 1-7 this year dipped by only about 0.76 per cent to $4.94 billion from $5.03 billion in the same period last year, the minister said.
He added that some stress could be there on certain discretionary spending sectors, and segments like textiles may take a little longer to recover.
"I hope that by the time we close March 2021, we would have recovered the lost ground of April and May. It will be a loss of close to $30 billion in two months....I have the confidence that our exporters and logistics companies together will make that happen," he said.
Contracting for the second straight month, India's exports shrunk by a record 60.28 per cent in April to $10.36 billion, mainly on account of the coronavirus lockdown.
Imports also plunged by 58.65 per cent to $17.12 billion in April, leaving a trade deficit of $6.76 billion as against $15.33 billion in April 2019. The webinar was organised by digital freight forwarding startup Freightwalla.
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