Indian exports have risen by 12.36 percent in December 2017 according to reports. Indian exports are now valued at an impressive $27.03 billion. This news has been credited greatly to an increase in the exports of engineering goods and petroleum.

December has been the 16^th month of continuous growth in the last 17 months. The last decline was seen in October 2017 which was caused mainly by duty drawback rates. This positive trend has inspired exporters to aim to reach the $300-billion milestone within the current fiscal year.

“Positive growth in exports for second month in a row, after a fall in October 2017, shows resilience of the Indian exporters. Since we have already achieved exports worth $224 billion in first nine months of the fiscal and global trade growth remains robust in 2018, we are on course to achieve the milestone of $300 billion in 2017-18,” said Ganesh Kumar Gupta, President, FIEO.

Imports in the month have seen a steep rise of 21.12 percent to $41.91 billion. This has been credited largely to the impact made by gold, silver, precious stones, petroleum and electronic goods. This has resulted in a larger trade deficit from $10.54 billion in December 2016 to $14.88 billion in December 2017.

The other sectors to that have performed well during the period include the pharmaceutical industry, gems and jewellery, organic and inorganic chemicals. The garments, iron ore and oil seeds sectors have on the contrary faced a decline. Total exports for the period April-December 2017-18 were $223.51 billion, which was 12.05 per cent higher than exports in the comparable period of the previous fiscal.

Overall imports for the period April-December 2017-18 were valued at $338.36 billion which was 21.76 per cent higher than imports in the same period of the previous fiscal.

Trade deficit in the first nine months of 2017-18 increased to $114.85 billion compared to $ 78.43 billion in the first nine months of 2016-17.