India’s exports are improving as the contraction in outbound shipments in June so far has come down to 10-12 per cent over April’s 60 per cent, according to commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal, who recently said he is awaiting data for the third week of June. Declining for the third straight month, India’s exports fell by 36.47 per cent in May to $19.05 billion. In the first two weeks of this month, India has reached up to 88-90 per cent of the level of exports that it witnessed in June 201, Goyal said at a function organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
The focus is on sustainable growth and not on giving ‘handout’” for exports as subsidies are never good for businesses and don’t help domestic exporters in engaging with the world from a position of strength and power, he was quoted as saying by a news agency. “We have some constraints in [allowing foreign direct investment in] multi-brand retail because we have a large part of Indians dependent on small mom-and-pop stores,” he said, adding that these shops have kept essential supplies available and played a key role during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The minister said that the government has to balance security concerns and opening up of economy and is giving special focus to high quality standard products. He said 15-17 states have undertaken game-changing labour reforms recently and a lot of it will come in the public domain in the next few days.
