New Delhi, May 13 (KNN) After a decent recovery of about seven per cent in March, India’s exports could grow by just about 1.6 per cent in April clearly indicating a tough year is ahead for those in the business of merchandise global trade.

For April, the first month of the financial year 2013-14, exports aggregated USD 24.16 billion growing by just 1.6 per cent as compared to the same month last year. However, as there was a gold buying spree, the country’s total imports went up by 10.95 per cent leaving a huge trade gap of USD 14 billion, up 27.1 per cent for the month.

The gold imports surged by 138 per cent as prices of the yellow metal fell significantly and the Indian consumer who is crazy for the yellow metal, went on a shopping spree. For March alone, gold imports were USD 7.5 billion throwing the government’s calculations on the country’s overall economy haywire.

The bigger worry is stagnating exports, which get 36 per cent share from the micro, small and medium enterprises. This has larger implications for the overall industrial scenario in the exporting hubs of Moradabad, Tirupur in Tamil Nadu, Panipat in Haryana and Surat in Gujarat.

The European, the US and some of the Asian markets are the major destinations of Indian exports and the slowdown in those markets is hitting Indian traders.

After achieving just about USD 300 billion in the last financial year, the Commerce Ministry has set a target of USD 325 billion for 2013-14.  (KNN)