Rising interest rates affecting exports, local industry, says PPBM

Tribune News Service

Neeraj Bagga

Amritsar, January 17

The Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal (PPBM) has claimed that exports from India were declining due to the war between Russia and Ukraine. PPBM office-bearers also said that a higher interest rate was being charged from the domestic industry and that the war in Europe had jacked up the cost of all kind of fuels, thereby disrupting the supply chain.

Piara Lal Seth, president of the Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal, said the country’s exports declined by 12.2 per cent to 34.48 billion US dollar and the country’s trade deficit increased to 23.76 billion US dollar in December 2022. The pace of orders from Europe and America had also slowed down, he informed.

Sunil Mehra, another PPBM functionary, said due to the Ukraine-Russia war, the global economy had slowed down and closer home, the Reserve Bank of India had increased the repo rate by 2.25 per cent since May 2020, which affected the interest rates of banks and provided capital to businessmen at a higher interest rate.

Due to these factors, indigenously rolled out products were lagging behind in competition in the domestic and international markets. In the event of this crisis, the government should provide capital to traders at lower interest rates while bank interest rates should be reduced for the MSMEs (Micro Small and Medium Enterprises) so that exports as well as domestic consumption can increase, Mehra said.

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