India’s bilateral trade with China rose by a third in the year to March, throwing a spanner in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s drive to wean the South Asian nation from relying on its larger neighbor for cheap imports and promote a thriving domestic industry.
(Bloomberg) — India’s bilateral trade with China rose by a third in the year to March, throwing a spanner in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s drive to wean the South Asian nation from relying on its larger neighbor for cheap imports and promote a thriving domestic industry.
Total merchandise trade between India and China rose 34% to $115.83 billion in the 12 months to March 2022, according to data from the Commerce Ministry released to parliament last week. Trade between the two nations so far this year — between April and October — stood at $69.04 billion, according to the ministry.
In recent years, Modi’s administration has been trying to cut India’s reliance on China — the country’s biggest source of imports. It imposed curbs on trade and businesses in 2020 amid the deadliest fighting in decades at their disputed Himalayan border.
Read: India Confirms First Border Clash With China Since 2020
Despite those curbs, imports from the Asian giant have ballooned, out-pacing exports handily. As such, India’s trade deficit with China in the first seven months of the current fiscal at $51.50 billion, the data showed. This compares with a reading of $73.31 billion for the entire fiscal ending March 2022.
–With assistance from Swansy Afonso.
(updates with trade deficit numbers in fourth paragraph.)
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