Exports growth in the current fiscal is likely to be in double digits despite the challenging situation, both on the external and internal fronts, Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan has said. In the last financial year, growth in exports was between 9% and 10%, and the volume touched $331 billion, which was a ‘record’, PTI reports.

Wadhawan also said the country had seen ‘continuous growth’ in the last three years. “In the current financial year, we are expecting the growth to be in double digits,” he said. The official said that global slowdown was almost visible as per the forecast of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and this fact would be factored in the revised Foreign Trade Policy (FTP).

The present FTP is valid till March 31, 2020, and the policy is announced every five years. In the first few months of the current fiscal, both exports and imports have been impacted. “While exports growth has managed to retain the past levels, imports have fallen leading to an improvement in the trade deficit,” he said.

Asked about the impact of the withdrawal of export benefits to Indian exporters under Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) by the US, Wadhawan said, “GSP is not an issue which is relevant now.” He said that benefits under GSP helped not more than 3% to 4% of total exports to the US.