Exports nosedive in Jan dashing hopes of recovery

Exports nosedive in Jan dashing hopes of recovery New Delhi, Feb 2 (PTI) After showing signs of recovery in December 2008, exports plunged by 22 per cent in January, as demand for Indian goods took a hard beating in the recession-hit major overseas markets."It is little unexpected. There were not many orders in the last quarter," Commerce Secretary G K Pillai told PTI.
Pillai said India would at best achieve 170 bilion dollar exports in the current fiscal. The government had set a target of 200 billion dollar on the back of 160 billion dollar achieved in 2007-08.
"Exports are going to come down and we have to live with it," he added.
Declining by 1.1 per cent in December over the same month last year, India's exports showed a negative growth for the third month running, but the sharp fall was arrested giving hope for a recovery.
After registering a handsome growth of over 30 per cent in the first-half of the current fiscal, the country's overseas shipments started shrinking since October last. PTI RK