Impact of exchange rate movement and macro-economic factors on exports of software and services from India

Abstract

Purpose – The information technology (IT) sector in India is the leading exporter from the service sector domain and also is a significant contributor to the overall export kitty of India. The IT sector’s contribution in total Indian exports (merchandise plus services) increased from less than 4 percent in FY1998-1999 to about 25 percent in FY2011-2012 as per IT industry nodal body National Association of Software and Services Companies and the central bank of the country, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). As this industry earns most of its revenue in foreign currencies it is exposed to the foreign exchange risks. The purpose of this paper is to validate the macro-economic theory that depreciation in domestic currency boosts export as it makes domestic good and services cheaper and appreciation in domestic currency deters export as it makes domestic good and services costlier. The authors are validating this theory for Indian rupee and keeping software services export in the focus. Design/methodology/approach – In this study the authors have done the multiple regression analysis on the obtained time-series data. The research was totally based on the secondary data from Quarter1 (April-June) of FY 2000-2001 to Quarter4 (January-March) of FY 2011-2012. It comprises of data for 48 consecutive quarters. The authors have taken the growth rate, so the final data set consist of data of 47 quarters. The main source of data are published data by RBI. Data have been collected for export of software services, merchandise export, real effective exchange rate, US-dollar-Indian rupee exchange rate, gross domestic product of India and selected countries. Findings – Data analysis leads the authors to the following findings: real effective exchange rate has no significant impact on software services export; US-dollar-Indian rupee exchange rate has no significant impact on software services export; external gross domestic product growth has no significant impact on software services export; and gross domestic product growth of India has no significant impact on software services export. The results obtained from multiple regression analysis are also supported by the results obtained from Granger Causality test. It does not identify any single factor as a major cause of software export. Results shows that the external GDP is having the statistically significant impact on the software export but the low value of R2 denotes that the impact is very low. Originality/value – There are no published studies available which has attempted similar kind of an approach to study using aggregated export data and other macro-economic variables like real effective exchange rate (REER) and GDP growth rate. All previous literatures used REER to measure the impact of the exchange rate on export.