Exporters' body Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) on Wednesday reiterated that exports should improve by the month of October.

". . . global situation is slowly improving and we expect exports to be at a take off stage by October," said FIEO president M Rafeeque Ahmed in a press statement.

Reacting to the Trade Data for the month of June and first quarter of the current fiscal, he said that the export data is on the expected lines as contraction in global demand and deceleration in manufacturing are primary reason for decline in exports.

Country's exports contracted for the second consecutive month in June by 5.45 percent, year-on- year, to USD 25 billion on account of growing economic uncertainties.

"However, the IIP data, point to a modest recovery in manufacturing during May which will help exports in next few months," Ahmed added.

Growth of eight core sectors slipped to 3.6 percent in June against 5.6 percent in the same month last year, according to official figures released Wednesday.

The FIEO chief exuded confident to achieve the export target of US$ 350 billion fixed for the current financial year. The reduction in imports would help to manage the trade deficit which can be kept below US$ 150 billion during 2011-12.

". . . the initiatives taken in the Foreign Trade Policy will take little time to bear its fruit and we can hope for over 30% growth in second half of the 2012-13," he said.

While he acknowledged positive measures announced by RBI on Forward Booking and EEFC , Ahmed added that  the cost of credit is still a cause of concern for the export sector and a general reduction in the interest rate would benefit manufacturing as well as exports.