India's Exports grew by an Annual 4.2% in February 2012 on account of Difficult Global Conditions

India's exports grew by an annual 4.2% in February 2012 to USD 24.6 billion. The growth was the slowest in three months. The country is likely to miss the target of USD 300 billion for 2011-12 in the wake of difficult global environment. Export growth slipped to 44.25% in August 2011 from a peak of 82% in July. The export growth had stood at 36.36% in September, 10.8% in October and 3.8% in November 2011.

Exports showed some improvement when it grew by 6.7% in December 2011 and over 10% in January 2012. During the April-February period in 2011-12, exports aggregated to USD 267.4 billion, a year-on-year growth of 21.4% on account of the surge witnessed in the early months of 2011-12 fiscal.

Imports on the other hand grew at a faster rate of 20.6% year-on-year to USD 39.7 billion in February 2012 resulting in a trade deficit of USD 15.1 billion. During the 11-month period (April 2011-February 2012), imports increased by 29.4% to USD 434.1 billion.

Trade gap for April-February period of 2011-12 stood at USD 166.7 billion thereby widening the country's current account deficit (CAD). CAD is beginning to cause worry as the figures touched USD 19.6 billion or 4.3% of the GDP during the December quarter of 2011-12.

The impact of fast growing protectionism and the euro-zone crisis is likely to continue to weigh on Indian exports in 2012-13 as well.