Expanding for the fourth straight month, exports surged by 34.8 per cent in February to $16.09 billion against $11.94 billion in the year-ago period on the back of revival in the Western economies.
Due to dismal performance up to November, the cumulative shipments during the April-February period, however, declined by 11 per cent to $153 billion from $172 billion in the same period last fiscal, Director General of Foreign Trade RS Gujral said.
Indicative of a revival in the economy, imports rose 66.1 per cent to $25.06 billion in February against $15.08 billion in the corresponding month last fiscal.
"It shows that the economy is picking up," commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma said.
As in the case of exports, for the cumulative April- February period, imports showed a decline of 13.5 per cent to $248 billion compared to $287 billion in the first 11 months of last fiscal.
Sectors like engineering goods, textiles, jute, carpets, handicrafts and leather continued to display poor performance. After falling for 13 months in a row since October 2008, exports re-entered the positive zone in November 2009.
