India's
Exports grow, imports surge
There's good news from the foreign
trade sector in the New Year. Both exports and imports are growing
a clipping rate, indicating that the economy is picking up momentum.
India's imports increased by 28.9% during November 2002, highlighting
persisting demand in the economy due to faster growth. This is
the third straight month when imports have grown at around 30%
during the current financial year. Import growth during October
was around 33% while growth in imports during September was 31%.
Exports have also returned to a high
growth orbit with November 2002 witnessing a 15.62% growth in
exports. The overall growth in exports during April-November also
shows 15.6% growth, after the recent upward revision which has
cast a cloud over the sanctity of commerce department data. The
15.6% growth in exports during November are definitely stronger
than the 9.92% growth seen in October.
India's
Tea export up
India's tea exports during 2002
would be higher than the 183 million kg recorded in 2001, a Tea
Board official said recently. "Because of intensive competition,
monthly tea export figures are showing huge fluctuations. It will
not be possible to quantify 2002 export figures up to October,
we can say that overall exports will be higher than the previous
year," the official said.
India's tea export came down to 183
million kg in 2001 from a high of 206 million kg in 2000. The
offacial said that exports between January and October 2002 increased
by 3.53 million kg to 157.04 from 153.51 mn kg in the corresponding
period of the previous year. In October, tea exports jumped by
5.06% to 19.94m kg from 18.98 kg in October, 2001, he said.
Economists
predict 5.4% growth for Bangladesh
Rich paddy harvests and an export
recovery will help Bangladesh's annual gross domestic product
grow at the rate of 5.4 percent next year, the Asian Development
Bank said recently.
"The GDP growth rate for fiscal year
2003 is expected to increase to 5.4 percent from an estimated
4.2 percent during 2002, dute to a measured recovery in both external
and domestic demand," Toru Shibuichi country director of the Asian
Development bank, or ADB, said.
Bangladesh's fiscal year begins in
June.
"Higher growth in agriculture is
expected to be led by a good food crop, assuming favorable weather
countinues," Shibuichi said.
"The export-oriented manufacturing
sector will rebound, provided the recovery in external demand
is sustained."
The bank predicted a recovery in
the export-oriented garments and frozen food sectors.
"Recovery in export-led manufacturing,
like knitwear and frozen sea food, is picking up due to recovery
in foreign markets.
Bangladesh, where most people live
on less than a dollar a day, will need to increase and sustain
its annual GDP growth rate to 8 percent to meet the income poverty
reduction target of 50 percent by 2010, bank officials said.
The garment industry, which accounts
for more than 70 percent of the country's total export revenues,
was hit hard by the post-Sept. 11 worldwide recession, with order
falling by nearly 18 percent.
Bangladesh exports readymade garments
mostly to Europe and the United States. American discount stores
buy Bangladesh-made clothing worth more than US$2 billion every
year.
Bangladesh also exports frozen sea
food, mostly shrimps and prawns, to European countries and the
Middle East.
Easier
financing boost Pakistan domestic car sales
Pakistan's low interest rates and
surging remittances from overseas are fueling robust growth in
car sales and aiding the recovery of the industry, which is dominated
in Pakistan by Japanese carmakers.
The growth has come so fast that
a supply squeeze is raising prices on new models for immediate
delivery.
Car sales rose 28 percent to 21,479
units in the five months from July to November, spurred largely
by heavy demand for Pakistani-assembled Toyota's new Corolla 2002
model and Suzuki's economy models, Alto and Cultus. "Easy money
available through leasing and low interest rates have primarily
driven the growth." Said Arshad Arif, head of research at brokerage
firm KASB Ltd.
The central bank's discount rate
is at a record low of 7.5 percent, down from 14 percent in July
2001. that fall has prompted many consumers to trade in their
old cars and buy new models. Indus Motors Co., which makes Toyota
vehicles in Pakistan, reported a 72 percent sales jump in the
July to November period.
Pakistani
film industry
Pakistan's once-lucrative film industry
is in crisis, as modern technology floods the market with Indian
and other foreign movies and the quality of local productions
sags, producers say.
"The malaise is all-pervasive encompassing
all segments of the industry," said the owner of the prime film
studio in "Lollywood," Pakistan's film industry centered in the
eastern city of Lahore.
Sajjad Gul, speaking to AFP at the
Ever new Studio, a sprawling complex spread over five acres (two
hectares), said the 1960s and 70s were the "golden spells" for
the industry when the largest number of films were produced and
return were lucrative.
Pakistan has around 450 cinemas and
they once dominated entertainment, with the big screen the most
popular source of fun for people from all strata of society.
