Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, stated on introducing the eagerly anticipated Foreign Trade Policy 2023 on March 31 that “FTP is dynamic and has been kept open ended to accommodate the emerging needs of the time.” This represents a new beginning since the updated policy was published for a three-year period (the previous announcement was for the period of 2015 to 2020) due to the impact of COVID-19, the global recession, the war in Russia and Ukraine and the ensuing sanctions, as well as the current geopolitical scenario.
Goyal epitomised optimism when he predicted that this year, India’s total exports, which currently stand at $750 billion and include both services and goods, will soar to $760 billion. Evidently, the performance needs to be evaluated against the backdrop of the recession.
Exports of products increased just 6.03% in FY 23 to From $422 billion in FY 2022 to $447.46 billion today. The value of imports climbed by 16.51% to $ 714.24 billion in FY 2023 from $ 613.05 billion in the prior fiscal year. The export of goods and services as a whole climbed by 13.84% year over year to an estimated $ 770.18 billion in FY 23, while the export of services jumped by 26.79% to an estimated $ 322.72 billion. Petroleum goods accounted for 40.1% of exports, electronics for 50.52 %, and rice for 15.5 %. Petroleum came in at 28.9%, followed by coal, coke and briquettes at 56.8% and electronics at 4.87 %.Compared to the previous year, the global trade deficit in 2022–2023 was US$ 122 billion ($83.53 billion). India has set out on a plan to grow its economy to $5 trillion by 2026–2027.
