India’s engineering goods exports increased 10.20% year-on-year to $10.04 billion in December.
Engineering exporters body EEPC India said the performance came in the face of several challenges triggered by geo-political tensions and tight financial conditions in major advanced economies. “While it is certainly a strong rebound, the sector is not out of the woods yet as global economic uncertainties remain high,” chairman Arun Kumar Garodia said.
In November, at $7.85 billion the exports were 3.10% lower and followed three months of consecutive growth.
Tensions in West Asia after those in Europe have “caused a fair amount of downside risks. There are projections global growth would slow down in 2024 and issues like high interest rate and low consumer spending would continue to bite this year as well,” he said in a release on the December trade data.
“We remain cautiously optimistic and hope geopolitical tensions would ease, leading to improvement in the global macroeconomic situation,” Mr. Garodia said.
The EEPC is batting for free trade pacts with more countries, especially in Latin America and Africa as that would help exporters access new and emerging markets. It also wants the government to initiate measures such as low-cost credit and market support in the Budget to boost engineering exports.
Published - January 16, 2024 09:50 pm IST
