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The country's exports rose by about 6 per cent to a "record" $447 billion during 2022-23 on account of healthy growth in the outbound shipments of sectors such as petroleum, pharma and chemicals and marine, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday.
The country's imports also grew by 16.5 per cent to $714 billion in 2022-23 as against $613 billion in 2021-22.
He said that the exports of goods and services together scaled "new heights" and has increased by 14 per cent to $770 billion in 2022-23 as against 676 billion in 2021-22.
"I am delighted to share with you the outstanding export performance for 2022-23, with India's overall exports scaling new heights at $770 billion, registering 14 per cent growth over the previous year and all-time high record growing from $500 billion in 2020-21 to $676 billion in 2021-22," the minister told reporters in Rome.
Goyal is on a three-day visit to France and Italy from April 11-13 to hold a series of meetings with leaders and top CEOs in these two countries to further boost trade and investment ties.
India's services exports too have increased by 27.16 per cent to $323 billion in 2022-23 as compared to $254 billion in 2021-22.
"This is truly a sign of India's expanding our international footprints," he added.
The overall imports of goods and services have touched $892 billion and it reflects that the country's economic activities are growing and that has supported the exports.
Talking to reporters here, Goyal said that the growth in exports would help in containing the current account deficit.
In the services sector, there is a healthy growth in areas including IT, accounting and business processing.
In the goods segment, sectors which recorded growth include oil meals, electronic goods, tobacco, oil seeds, rice, coffee, fruits and vegetables, leather goods, ceramic, pharma, marine products, chemicals, and ready-made garments of textiles.
Services imports are estimated at $178 billion in 2022-23 as against $147 billion a year ago.
Goyal said that the exports of goods and services has increased by about $100 billion to cross $770 billion in such challenging times, when the world is seeing softening and slowing of international trade, recessionary conditions in the developed world, and unprecedented high inflation in many developed countries.
There were concerns because of the conflict in Russia, Ukraine; there were also concerns that piled up inventories in the developed world may not help us achieve such a "stupendous" performance, he added.
"It is indeed a matter of satisfaction that we have grown both in goods and services," he said, adding, "India is looking forward to engaging even more deeply with countries around the world with the developed world, and developing countries and contributing to the world's progress and prosperity as we grow jobs in India, economic opportunities in India."
"When we look at the overall economic scenario, where GST collections are high, where exports are at a record high, where inflation has come down... strong foreign exchange reserves exceeding $600 billion...clearly reflects the mood of the nation," he added.
Goyal said that as the world moves into global value chains, India will look at expanding its footprint in both imports and exports.
The trade data also shows that the CAD (Current Account Deficit) will be very much under control given that "our" remittances have crossed $100 billion and good inflow of investments, he added.
He also said that as the services trade data is an estimate, "I am expecting when the final numbers would come, India's exports of goods and services may touch $772 billion."
On fixing exports targets for 2023-24, he said that the ministry will draw sectoral and country-wise specific plans, along with missions and come up with the current year targets and expectations.