Indian merchandise export fell by 60 percent in April 2020

May 16, 2020: India’s overall exports (merchandise and services combined) in April 2020 are $27.96 billion, showing negative growth of 36.65 percent over the same period last year. Overall imports in April are of $27.80 billion, exhibiting a negative growth of 47.36 percent over the same period last year.

Merchandise trade

Exports
Exports in April were $10.36 billion, as compared to $26.07 billion in April 2019, showing negative growth of 60.28 percent. In rupee terms, exports were Rs 78,951.41 crore in April 2020, as compared to Rs 1,81,021.34 crore in April 2019, registering a negative growth of 56.39 percent. The decline in exports has been mainly due to the ongoing global slowdown, which got aggravated due to the current Covid-19 crisis. The latter resulted in large scale disruptions in supply chains and demand resulting in the cancellation of orders.

Except for Iron Ore and Drugs & Pharmaceuticals which registered a growth of 17.53 percent and 0.25 percent respectively, all other commodities/commodity groups have registered negative growth in April 2020 vis-à-vis April 2019.

Non-petroleum and Non-Gems and Jewellery exports in April 2020 were $9.08billion, as compared to $19.54billion in April 2019, exhibiting a negative growth of (-) 53.54per cent.

Imports
Imports in April 2020 were $17.12 billion (Rs.1,30,525.08crore), which was 58.65per cent lower in Dollar terms and 54.59per cent lower in Rupee terms over imports of $41.40billion (Rs2,87,432.93crore) in April2019.