Owing to strong global orders, India's merchandise exports rose by 22.6 percent, in September as compared to September 2020. Impressively, exports also rose by 29.8 percent as compared to September 2019, before the pandemic struck.

Data released by the Commerce and Industry Ministry on October 14 showed outbound trade rose to $33.7 billion in September, up from $ 27.56 billion in September 2020.

Cumulatively, exports have grown by 55.4 percent in the April-September period of FY22 (2021-22) as compared to the same period of 2020. Compared to 2019, exports have gone up by 31.35 percent over the same period, the Ministry said.

After a difficult FY21 (2020-21), exports had begun rising since December. In February, before the low base effect kicked in, growth was a marginal 0.67 percent. Since then, calculated annually (Y-o-Y), exports had risen by 48.3 percent in June, 69.7 percent in May, and 193.63 percent in April, due to the low base effect which is now slowly wearing off.

In September, imports saw an equally large rise, going up by a massive 84.7 percent to $56.4 billion. This was a break from the past few months when import growth had been slowly reducing. Experts say this bodes well for the economy, signifying the return of industrial and consumer demand.

Similar to exports, as the low base wears off, the jumps in import growth have moderated. Imports had risen by 51.5 percent in August, 62.9 percent in July, 98.3 percent in June, 73.6 percent in May, and 163 percent in April.