Amid 2nd Covid wave, foreign trade, transport sectors show resilience

Exported goods worth $30.6 billion in April 2021. These are the second highest monthly exports, only next to $34.5 billion earned through exports in March 2021.

Imports stood at $45.7 billion. These were also the second highest in the history and marked a whopping 167.1 per cent increase over April 2020. Imports also were 7.9 per cent higher than their pre-pandemic levels in April 2019.

Railway freight traffic declined to 111.7 million tonnes in April 2021, after peaking at 130.5 million tonnes in March 2021. It was, however, 70.7 per cent higher than its year-ago level and 10.5 per cent higher than in the same month of 2019.

Traffic at major ports displayed a similar trend, falling to 61.5 million tonnes in April 2021 from 72 million tonnes in March 2021. Compared to April 2020, the traffic was higher by 19.5 per cent and when compared to April 2019, it was higher by 2.4 per cent.

Electricity generation by utilities increased to 115.5 billion kwh in April 2021, marking a robust 42.5 per cent growth over generation in April 2020 and a 5.7 per cent growth over generation in April 2019.