FICCI recommends measures to stimulate falling exports
05 Jan '09
7 min read
The slackness in demand and the reduced economic activity / production level at the firm level is forcing many companies to evaluate their workforce levels. In the light of the recent developments, many companies have decided not to fill up empty positions and have also stopped fresh recruitment.
Close to 60% of the companies have said that they are going extremely slow on fresh hiring and on finding replacements for the workers who are leaving their organizations.
While this seems to be the predominant strategy as far as employment situation is concerned, companies are also not shying away from laying off people if the need arises. In fact, many companies that participated in the FICCI survey have said that their respective organizations would see employment levels reduce by around 10% to 15% over the next six months.
In the present hour of crisis, the Indian exporters expect significant support from the government. The exporters have also called for pro-active accommodation from banks and financial institutions.
Many of the exporters who participated in the survey have said that despite the easing of the monetary policy by the RBI, banks are still maintaining their conservative stance with regard to export finance. Some of the problems that exporters are facing include bank's refusal to increase credit limit, bank's being too cautious in terms of fresh lending and continuation of high interest rates despite significant monetary easing.