The India's exports of pharmaceutical products registered a growth of 30.7 per cent, reaching Rs 31,607.84 crore, in the first ten months of the financial year 2008-09, according to latest figures available from the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil).

The Pharmexcil analysis, based on the exports data from the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence & Statistics (DGCI&S) and Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), shows that the Indian pharmaceutical exports has increased to Rs 31,607.84 crore in the first 10 months of financial year 2008-09 from Rs 24,175.9 crore for the same period during previous year. The exports to United States (US) reached US$ 6.99 billion compared to US$ 6.08 billion during the same period in 2007-08. The growth of exports to US is 16.4 per cent, reveals the study.

The highest growth in the 10 months exports was in December 2008 as compared to the same period of the previous year. The exports went up to Rs 4,934.43 crore in December 2008 which is 78.3 per cent higher than the Rs 2,766.78 crore recorded in the same month in 2007. The increase in exports was also high in November 2008, as it has recorded a Rs 2,988.72 crore with a 34.1 per cent increase when compared to the exports in November 2007 (Rs 2,228.86 crore).

However, the exports in January 2009 experienced a meagre 11.5 percent reaching Rs 2,916.99 crore when compared to Rs 2,616.72 crore in January 2008. The exports to US also found a decline of 10.1 per cent in January in US dollar terms. The US business experienced a growth of 44 per cent in December 2008, when compared to the same period during previous year.

Out of the 25 importing countries analysed by the council, the business to almost 18 countries has shown decline during the month of Jan 09 when compared to the performance in January 2008.

"USA remained the largest importer while Germany was replaced by Austria for the second position growing at 1,123.26 per cent reaching US$ 283.43 from US$ 23.17. Exports to Germany declined by 12.06 per cent while to China it declined by 20.97 per cent and Italy by 26.6 per cent." The exports to Spain and Brazil have also declined at 35.21 per cent and 30.74 per cent respectively. Exports to Thailand have gone up by 65.45 per cent in January 2009.

Meanwhile, India's pharma exports to South Africa, Belgium, Kenya, Nigeria and France has increased significantly during the period. The exports to South Africa met a growth of 57.27 per cent even as Belgium exports grew 83.2 per cent in the period under consideration. Exports to Kenya grew 63.51 per cent, to Nigeria increased 38.79 per cent and France to 33.25 per cent, reveals the study.