China largest source of imports to India during April-Sep of FY24: Govt

China again emerged as the largest source of imports to the country, with imports from China crossing $ 56.29 billion during April-September this fiscal, the ministry said.

This marks an 11.5 per cent increase in imports from China compared to $ 50.48 billion in the same period last year. Meanwhile, the United States has emerged as India's top export destination, with outbound shipments rising by 5.62 per cent to reach $ 40.38 billion.

The major sources of import for India are China, Russia, UAE, the US, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, South Korea, Switzerland, and Singapore. The last in this list has emerged only for the third time. Significantly, imports from Russia also increased to $ 32.18 billion against $ 30.43 billion y-o-y. Imports from the UAE went up to $ 31.46 billion, hugely higher than $ 20.70 billion during the corresponding period last year.

The US remained the largest destination on the export side followed by the UAE, the Netherlands, the UK, China, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Germany, and South Africa. Exports to the UAE rose from $ 15.47 billion during the previous year to $ 17.24 billion in this fiscal. Export to China also saw a marginal gain at $ 6.91 billion from $ 7.63 billion during the same period of the previous fiscal.

China had remained India's largest trading partner from 2013-14 to 2017-18 and in 2020-21. The UAE had been the largest trading partner before this time when China reasserted itself as a leading trading partner. The US had accounted for being that way for both years of 2021-22 and 2022-23. In the current fiscal year, the US is India's largest trading partner, followed by China as the second-largest.