Hyderabad, Feb 4 (PTI) The country's exports in the current fiscal year are expected to surpass the earlier peakof USD 314 billion in 2013-14, a senior official said Monday.
"This year, we are very confident that we will go pastour earlier peak, our earlier peak of 2013-14. We will go past that peak quite comfortably this year," Union Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan told reporters here.
The earlier peak was 314 billion, he said.
The achievement comes against the backdrop of a verychallenging global environment, Wadhawan said.
"The earlier peak was 314 billion. We will be comfortably beyond that. Mind you, that is in a very, very challenging global environment. It's an environment where petroleum prices are coming down and 15 per cent of our exports are petroleum products. So, in spite of that, we aregoing to achieve a new peak," he said.
The exports, in general, have been growing almostconsistently for the last three years, he said.
"In fact, you all know about the downturn of 2008-09when there was a financial crisis, that hit us quite badly.But then we recovered from that. We reached a peak figure ofour exports in 2013-14 and then as you know that global crisisgot accentuated," Wadhawan said.
"The real economy got affected and you saw, countrieslike China and all also getting affected for the first time.Then again, there were couple of years of slight downturn," hesaid.
After that, for the last three years, the country'sexports were growing, he added.
Pharma, engineering products, petroleum products, gemsand jewellery, leather products and even textiles would beamong sectors that contribute to the growth in the exports,Wadhawan said.
"India is doing better, because of lot of effort whichhas been put into it, effort on the policy side, effort on theregulatory side, in terms of ease of doing business, in termsof simplification of procedures. There are so manyinterventions, starting with making credit available ataffordable rates...," Wadhawan said.
He also said the Current Account Deficit is well undercontrol. "Current account is under control, thanks to the factthat exports are growing and then petroleum prices have alsostabilised to some extent and are falling in the recentmonths... I think the economy is in good shape," he said.
An export strategy is in place with the governmentlistening to the exporters and addressing their problems, hesaid.
He hoped the IT exports would grow at around 10 percent which has been the trend for many years.
"The fact that we are dominant today (in IT), will inmany ways, logically mean that we will remain dominanttomorrow also. So, certainly, I see a good future for IndianIT," he said.
Replying to a query, he said the country's exports toChina and the US are doing well and that the trade issuesbetween the two countries also to some extent contributed toIndia's cause.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)