December 2, 2001	Sunday	Ramazan 16, 1422

NEW DELHI, Dec 1: India’s merchandise exports fell 7.39 per cent in October and 2.88 per cent in April-October of 2001-02, and analysts said the downward trend was expected to continue due to a global economic slowdown.

The Commerce and Industry Ministry said on Saturday that exports in April-October fell to $24.38 billion from $25.10 billion in the year-ago period.

Analysts said declining exports will persist until March as the world economy was not doing well.

They said the full impact of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington on demand in the United States, India’s second largest trading partner, was also becoming clearer.

October was the fifth successive month when exports have fallen — exports fell to $3.44 billion from $3.72 billion in the year earlier period.

“Our exports to the US are not doing well. It has fallen by 17 per cent since April,” said D.H. Pai Panandikar, director general of the private economic think-tank RPG Foundation.

The US accounts for close to a quarter of India’s exports.

“The same trend as in September is continuing, there is a recession in the world market,” said Arun Goyal, Director of the Academy of Business Studies.

Goyal said a large part of global trade was in regional trading arrangements but India was not part of any significant trading bloc.

He said India’s export strategies were not delivering results because of the global economic slowdown.

India has stuck to its 2001-02 (April-March) export growth target of 12 per cent despite the global economic turmoil, saying US firms were likely to seek cheaper sources, like India, as economic growth picks up in the months ahead.

RBI: Loans and advances by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to the federal government stood at 32.25 billion rupees for the week ended November 23, 2001 compared to 124.30 billion rupees in the previous week, the central bank said in its weekly statistical supplement on Saturday.

Loans and advances to state governments fell to 62.12 billion rupees in the week to November 23 compared to 78.95 billion rupees in the previous week, the RBI said.—Reuters