India's services exports to cross $300bn target for this fiscal: Piyush Goyal

Piyush Goyal said that on the merchandise front also, exports are so far registering healthy growth despite the world being under recession, huge inflationary pressure and overstocking of various commodities.

The country's services exports are doing “extremely well” and going by the current trend these outbound shipments would register about 20% growth in this fiscal and cross the $300 billion target despite global economic uncertainties, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said.

He said that on the merchandise front also, exports are so far registering healthy growth despite the world being under recession, huge inflationary pressure and overstocking of various commodities.

With all these stress, where every global leader is talking of “very” tough times, India's exports rose 9% year-on-year during April-December 2022-23. “On services though, we have done extremely well. On services we are probably going to do at least a 20% growth and by the current trends, we will exceed the target of $300 billion this year.

“So all in all, it will be a very very satisfying year, given the global headwinds and the stress that is reported from almost every part of the world,” he told reporters in Gandhinagar, adding the government’s structural reforms and steps such as ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’ are yielding fruits.

During April-December 2022-23, overall exports rose 9% to $332.76 billion while imports increased 24.96% to %551.7 billion. Trade deficit during the nine-month period widened to $218.94 billion as against $136.45 billion in April-December 2021-22. In last fiscal year, the country's merchandise shipments touched an all-time high of $422 billion.

According to the data of the Commerce Ministry, the estimated value of services export in April-December 2022 is $235.81 billion as compared to $184.65 billion in the year-ago period. In 2021-22, these exports touched an all-time high of $254 billion.