Despite a slowdown in global demand, India’s overall exports and imports of goods and services crossed the US$ 800 billion mark in the first half of 2023, thanks to a robust increase in the country’s services sectors, according to the think tank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI).
India’s foreign trade (exports and imports of merchandise and services) reached US$ 800.9 billion in January-June 2023. The GTRI data shows that from January-June of this year, exports of goods and services increased by 1.5% to US$ 385.4 billion, compared to US$ 379.5 billion in the same period in 2022.
However, compared to US$ 441.7 billion in January-June 2022, imports decreased by 5.9% to US$ 415.5 billion in the first half of this year. In contrast, over the six-month period, services exports increased by 17.7% to US$ 166.7 billion, while imports increased by 3.7% to US$ 89.8 billion.
According to GTRI Co-Founder Mr. Ajay Srivastava, India should keep concentrating on raising the quality of its products and the competitiveness of its supply chain.
He continued, saying that since every major nation is turning inward, India shouldn’t give up its policy space, particularly when it comes to emerging concerns in free trade agreements and the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF).
He recommended that in order to oppose unilateral policy actions such as the EU Deforestation Regulation or the CBAM (carbon border adjustment mechanism), the government should be prepared to use targeted and specific responses.
According to Mr. Ajay Srivastava, India successfully accomplished this in 2019 by imposing higher duties on US goods after the US did the same with steel and aluminium in 2018.
He also proposed that part of the cost of disability may be covered by a horizontal plan that offers incentives ranging from 2-3% to all companies in the industry. According to the report, from January-June of 2023, 11 out of 29 product categories that account for 25% of India’s exports saw positive export growth.
These industries include ceramic products, boilers, turbines, machinery, telecom, computers, and electronics. From January-June of this year, smartphone exports totalled US$ 7.5 billion, up from US$ 2.5 billion in the same period in 2022.
Regarding oil imports, it was reported that the amount imported from January-June of 2022 was US$ 79.2 billion, whereas in January-June of 2023, it was US$ 73.2 billion. Nevertheless, during January-June 2022, Russia’s portion of India’s petroleum crude imports increased from 6.4% to 31.3% in January-June 2023.
