India merchandise exports at record high of $418 billion in FY22

India’s goods exports touched a record high of $418 billion in the financial year that ended on March 31, boosting the country’s aim to reduce trade deficit and becoming self-reliant.

The south Asian nation exported wheat worth over $2 billion in the financial year between April 1, 2021 and March 31, 2022, against $530 million in the previous year, trade minister Piyush Goyal told reporters in New Delhi on Sunday. 

“We will continue to export wheat in a big way to meet the needs of the countries which are not getting their supplies from the conflict area,” Goyal said referring to the war in Ukraine. He expects India’s wheat exports to grow to over 10 million tons in the financial year that started April 1 from 7 million tons a year earlier.

Despite the record exports, India is facing a widening current-account balance due to growing gap between imports and exports and falling foreign investments. The current account, a broad measure of the country’s overseas trade and services flows, was in a deficit of $23 billion, or 2.7% of gross domestic product, in the three months ended December, the Reserve Bank of India said in a statement on Thursday. 

In March, the South Asian nation exported goods worth over $40 billion, highest ever for a month, Goyal said. In the same event, a trade ministry official said India also exported highest amount of engineering goods, at $111 billion in the past year with the U.S. as the top export destination. The country’s sugar exports also rose to $4.46 billion last year against $2.65 billion year earlier.