India has achieved its target of $400 billion in exports in the financial year 2022. Asia’s third-largest economy reached its highest ever goods exports on March 23, nine days ahead of the intended deadline. In the April-December period, the figure stood at $300 billion.

“India set an ambitious target of $400 billion of goods exports & achieved this target for the first time ever. I congratulate our farmers, weavers, MSMEs, manufacturers, exporters for this success. This is a key milestone in our Atmanirbhar Bharat journey,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted on Wednesday.

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In a reply during the question hour in Lok Sabha in February, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said, “For 10th month in a row, April 2021 to January 2022, India has posted over USD 30 billion of exports. It is a record, we have already crossed USD 334 billion of exports which is more than the highest ever that India has done in a full 12 months period. We are well on track to achieve USD 400 billion of exports.”

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The accomplishment of $400 billion in goods exports represents an increase of over 21% over the previous record high of $330 billion achieved in FY2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic. India’s goods exports in April-February 2021-22 was $374 billion compared to $256.55 billion during the year-ago period, a growth of 46.09%. India’s goods exports in FY21 were $298.1 billion.

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Key drivers of India’s export growth include engineering goods, which have grown by 49.7% in the first 11 months of the fiscal, electronics goods exports have grown by 42.8% and gems and jewellery exports have grown by 57.3%. Petroleum exports have risen by 147.6% due to a steady increase in crude oil prices.

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While exports have grown significantly, India’s goods imports have grown even faster reaching $550 billion in the first 11 months of the financial year owing to sharp growth in imports of crude oil, coal, gold, electronics and chemicals. Escalating prices of commodities such as crude oil and coal have played a significant role in adding to India’s imports and taking the trade deficit for the first 11 months to a record high of $176 billion.