Page 299 - economic review

CHAPTER 271

EXTERNAL SECTOR

Introduction

Improved global activity and pick up in world trade volume has revived India’s export performance.
The sustainability of the trade performance would depend on pace of economic activity within the
country. Kerala is a major contributor to India’s external trade and has an important role in the export
prospects of the nation. Tourism sector also plays a key role in the overall economic growth of the
state. The direct impact of tourism is visible from the performance of trade, hotels and restaurants
sector which contributes a major share of Kerala’s service sector GDP. The contribution of this sector
is 17.4 percent of the GSDP during the period under review. Remittances of non resident Keralites
and tourism are also very significant drivers of Kerala’s economy

Section 1
External trade

India’s trade performance improved significantly in recent times, for, the growth in exports and
compression in import during the previous periods. With the weakening of activities in major trade
partner economies and due to persistence of supply-side constraints in certain exports sectors
domestically, pick up in import growth, especially of non-oil/non gold imports, substituting production
short fall within the economy, export growth slightly lost momentum.
6.2 Trade operations in Kerala is mainly conducted through Cochin Port. Items of Trade include
pepper, cashew, coir and coir products, tea, cardamom, ginger, spices and spices oil and marine
products. The total traffic handled by the port during 2013-14 recorded an increase of 5.25 per cent
to reach 208.86 Lakh MT as against 198.45 Lakh MT, handled in the preceding year. Exports which
declined during 2012-13, showed an increase of 10.85 per cent to become 42.50 Lakh MT in 2013-
14 from 38.34 Lakh MT of the previous year. Import during the period increased to 166.36 Lakh
MT from the preceding period level of 160.11 Lakh MT. Along with 11 per cent growth of exports in
quantitative terms, the value of exports also increased by 11 per cent during the period of review
(see Table 6.1).

Economic Review 2014