Dollar strength against rupee no panacea for export growth: EEPC India
Kolkata, Sep 3 : India's engineering export growth slackened to 9.4 per cent in July even as the rupee continued to depreciate against the dollar during the month, demonstrating that a stronger dollar does not always lead to export momentum, the EEPC India said on Monday.
The Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) of India said engineering exports had grown by 18.92 per cent in April this year, 14.59 per cent in May, 14.17 per cent in June and then by 9.37 per cent in July.
"Our view has been that it is a stable currency which helps exporters, providing them with predictability of dealing with the buyers. Any fluctuation and volatility on either side does not help," council's Chairman Ravi Sehgal said.
The EEPC paper noted the rupee depreciated by 6.56 per cent in July as compared to 5.19 per cent in June.
"But did exports grow at a higher rate too, and was there a currency depreciation advantage? No, exports in July, this year expanded at a lesser pace of 9.37 per cent than 14.17 per cent in June," it explained.
In any case, the rupee depreciation to plus 71 to a dollar level in August should be seen in the context of January 2017, when the average exchange rate was Rs 68.08 to a dollar which reversed to 63.64 in January this year, it said in a statement.
When the rupee was 68-plus to a dollar in January 2017, engineering exports grew by about 12 per cent but when in the same month of 2018, when the rupee became stronger and exporters could have got the disadvantage of a weak dollar, these exports grew at a higher pace of 15 per cent, the council said. It noted that a stable currency is the best bet for exporters.
According to EEPC India, the present depreciation of the rupee should get a contextual perspective that it is not the Indian currency alone which has lost ground. Currencies of major emerging markets have seen value erosion against the US dollar, giving level-playing to exporters of all these countries.
"When everyone else is on the same footing, extra advantage does not really accrue. The key lies in improving the domestic efficiency levels so that the cost of production is brought down. The dollar appreciation conversely is also making the raw material for exports expensive," it added.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
