Record Increase In Gold Imports: Commerce Secretary

Record increase in gold imports, all sectors of exports also pick up, a good sign for economic recovery: Commerce Secretary.

According to data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, in April this year, gold imports registered an increase of 2,20,357.24 percent as compared to April last year.

According to foreign trade experts, this will be the first time when the import of gold has increased by more than two lakh percent.

However, this increase has come mainly due to significantly lower turnover due to the nationwide lockdown of the previous year.

According to the ministry’s data released on Friday, gold worth $ 6.23 billion was imported in April this year, while in April last year, gold worth only $ 2.8 million was imported.

Record increase in gold imports: Gold imports also registered an increase due to increased export demand for gems and jewelery.

According to the data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the exports of April this year increased by 195.72 percent as compared to April last year.

There is a real boom in April exports this year, as compared to April of 2019, it has increased by 17.62 percent.

Commerce Secretary Anoop Wadhawan said that all the sectors of exports are recovering and some sectors are particularly strong.

He said that in view of this, an export target of $ 400 billion i.e. about Rs 29 lakh crore has been set for the current financial year.

He said that many sectors which were performing poorly in the last year have also recovered very fast. In April this year, exports of gems and jewelery increased by 160.24 percent compared to April last year.

The Commerce Secretary said that there are signs of recovery of the economy due to an increase in imports along with exports.

Imports in April this year increased by 167.05 percent over the same period last year and 7.87 percent over April 2019.

In the first month of the current financial year, exports of the goods and services sector also performed better. In April, services sector exports grew by 28.68 percent over the same period last year.

The services sector mainly consists of IT, so in April last year, the performance of the services sector was not as impressive as the export of goods.