Covid-19: India's merchandise exports plunge by over 34%

New Delhi, April 15 (IANS) India's merchandise exports plunged by over 34 per cent in March on a year-on-year basis to $21.41 billion from $32.72 billion reported for the corresponding period of the previous year.Similarly, on a sequential basis, exports were higher than $27.65 billion worth of merchandise which were shipped out in February."The decline in exports has been mainly due to the ongoing global slowdown, which got aggravated due to the current Covid-19 crisis. The latter resulted in large-scale disruptions in supply chains and demand resulting in cancellation of orders," the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in a statement. "Except for iron ore, which registered a growth of 58.43 per cent, all other commodity groups have registered negative growth in March 2020 vis-a-vs March 2019."
--IANS rv/sn/prs