An Overview of Indian Import and Export Statistics

India is a country with massive workforce and constantly improving manufacturing methods and tools. This gives the country an edge over many developing countries to become a well-known exporting country. The exports from India to different countries have certainly grown in the past few years (excluding the period of recession).

At the same time, the people living in India are earning more and changing the way they live their life. This has lead to an increase in the items imported by the country. So, what about the trade deficit and what are the major Indian items of import and export? Have an overview of Indian trade statistics form the discussion below.

Exports from India
The period of recession enforced the exports from India to slow down by 18% in the year 2009. However, an increase of 35 percent has been recorded for the Indian exports in the first five months of the year 2010. The UAE came up as the topmost consumer of the Indian goods by importing 12.3 percent of total exports from India in 2009. The USA followed closely by importing 11.7 percent and China ranked at third position with the import percentage of 5.4 from India.

Cotton apparels, diamonds, pharmaceutical preparations, jewelry, industrial chemicals, rugs and industrial machinery are counted among major exported items from India. Dairy products, eggs, computers, petroleum products, precious metals and nuclear fuels are the fast growing items of exports from India.

Imports to India
The products of worth $253.9 billion were imported to India in 2009, showing a drop from the figure recorded in 2008. India imported 10.8 percent of its total imports from China, 6.9 percent from Saudi Arabia, 6.7 percent from the United States and 6.7 percent from the UAE.

Civilian aircrafts and their parts from the USA are the main items of import to India. Chemical fertilizers, telecommunication equipment, industrial engines, plastic materials and steelmaking materials too contribute significantly towards the imported items. Oilseeds, passenger car bodies, commercial vessels, fruits and frozen juices and audio and visual tapes are the fats growing import items.

The trade deficit of $121.4 billion was recorded by India in 2008. There was an improvement in 2009, as the country’s trade deficit stood up at $88.9 billion, showing an improvement of 26.8 percent. All these statistics give hints of improving export import scenario in India.

The above statistics of imports and exports in India are worth giving for businesses operating in B2B sector and several SME's who are the direct beneficiary of such statistics. Keeping all this in consideration, government also taking some positive steps to promote businesses to start import and export aggressively with enhanced foreign trade policies to give an helping hand for country's overall economical growth.