Mumbai, July 12: Deceleration in overseas shipment of certain commodities is likely to pull down India’s export growth to 9% in ’03-04 against 19% increase in the previous fiscal, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) said in its monthly review. Imports are also expected to witness a slowdown in growth at 4.5% in the current fiscal compared to 19% in ’02-03, CMIE said.
The sharp slowdown in imports growth is expected to keep the trade deficit lower at seven billion dollars in ’03-04 as compared to nine billion dollars in ’02-03.
The trade deficit was higher at $2.4bn in April ’03-04 as against $1.4bn during the same period last fiscal.

In the first two months of the current fiscal, the growth in country’s exports has decelerated to 10.5% as against 18.9% in the same period year ago.
The dip in export growth would be due to the sharp deceleration in the commodities, including non-basmati rice, primary and semi-finished iron and steel, iron ore, non-ferrous metals, iron & steel bars and handicrafts. Bureau Report