New Delhi: India's overall exports, merchandise and services combined, in January are estimated to be $69.72 billion, exhibiting a positive growth of 8.49 per cent on a yearly basis, official data released on Thursday showed.

The overall exports during January 2023 were worth USD 63.80 billion.

Overall imports during the first months of 2023 increased to USD 70.46 billion as against USD 67.65 billion in the same month of the previous year.

Trade deficit narrowed to USD 0.75 billion as against USD 3.85 billion same month previous year, data showed.

Merchandise exports in January grew to USD 36.92 billon as against USD 35.80 billion registered in the previous year. Merchandise imports grew to USD 54.41 billion as against USD 52.83 billion in January 2023.

With a growth of 26.4 per cent over the base year of 2013-14, the highest number of exporters was registered in 2022-23 at 1.63 lakh.

USA and UAE were top two destination countries with the highest exporters in 2022-23.
Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said that his ministry has held meetings to discuss the ongoing conflict in the Red Sea area, with concerned ministries including the Department of Financial Services.

He said banks were asked to extend the credit to exporters where it should be extended.

"We have also asked Exim Bank and ECGC (Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India) that insurance rates should not be increased so that it will not create an extra burden on exporters. These measures helped us to increase India's exports," the secretary said.

Barthwal said that they are also working on new territories and new products India can export its products and services.

"We have figured out huge number of products which we have been able to push for the first time," he said.

Among various steps the government took was to launch a Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme in varied sectors, including electronic goods, to make Indian manufacturers globally competitive, attract investments, enhance exports, integrate India into the global supply chain and reduce dependency on imports. These seemed to have reaped dividends.

India's overall exports in March ended the financial year 2022-2023 were worth USD 775.87 billion, a growth of over 14 per cent and almost USD 100 billion more than last year's figures.

In 2022-23, India's merchandise and services exports rose 6.74 per cent and 27.86 per cent to USD 450.43 billion and USD 325.44 billion, respectively.

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