Economic Survey says services export growth cushioning India's trade balance

In light of enforcement of 13 Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and six Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs), the survey tabled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman cited an increase in market size across diversified markets like Brazil, South Africa and Saudi Arabia.

Merchandise exports have grown 9.11 percent year-on-year to $332.8 billion for April to December 2022 against $305 billion during the period April-December 2021. The survey further projects that fashion, grocery and general merchandise will capture nearly two-thirds of the Indian e-commerce market by 2027.

The Economic Survey said India in a better position in terms of a relatively low levels of total debt as a percentage of Gross National Income and short-term debt as a percentage of total debt, terming the current stock of external debt as "well shielded by the comfortable level of foreign exchange reserves."

As of December 2022, India's forex reserves are $563 billion which have been termed as sufficient by the survey for 9.3 months of imports. Citing World Bank estimates on India being the world's top recipient of remittances at $100 billion during 2022, the survey has termed remittances as the second largest major source of external financing after service exports.

Reducing the cost of logistics in India as comparable to global benchmarks and a rank among the top 25 countries on Logistics Performance Index by 2030 have been listed as the targets for the National Logistics Policy. The policy also aims to create a data-driven decision support mechanism for an efficient logistics ecosystem to be implemented through the Comprehensive Logistics Action Plan (CLAP).