India'S Export Decline Will Cut Ten Million Workers

On the 7 day, India exporters warned that 10 million people will be out of work by March, and the decline in exports in December will be narrowed. People think that the trade is improving, but the global economic crisis has broken the hopes of people.

An official said exports continued to decline for three consecutive months, down 1.6% from December to $11 billion 200 million, but the decline was much lower than the 9.9% decline in November and a 12.1% decline in October.

A Sakthivel, President of the India export organization alliance (FIEO), said exporters, mostly exporters of textiles, jewelry, diamonds and leather products, will be forced to cut 10 million workers by March.

Export enterprises constitute about 20% of India's GDP, and are highly labor-intensive enterprises with 150 million employees.

In the first half of the fiscal year, India's exports increased by 30.9%, but it began to shrink in October.

As a result, -12 growth in April narrowed by half.

Sakthivel said negative trends will continue in the coming months.

I hope that exports will be about 1750-1800 billion dollars at the end of the year.

But the Ministry of Commerce hopes that exports will stabilize.

The government's stimulus package was disappointing. FIEO said the plan announced by the government last week did not seriously consider the needs of exporters.

This year's export target is US $200 billion, while the total export volume in 2007-08 is about US $160 billion.

Europe and North America constitute 37% of India's merchandise exports, but the European and North American markets have plunged into recession and downturn.

The official said that textile exports in December were reduced by 18%, jewelry and diamond exports decreased by 21%, while handicrafts exports decreased by 64%.

In April 2008 -12, exports grew by about 15% to $130 billion, compared with $113 billion in the same period last year.

At the same time, Dun and Bradstreet, a research institution, said India could not achieve export target of US $200 billion, and the export volume could be US $182 billion.

Yang Jing: editor in charge