The Hindu : Business : India moves ahead in services trade

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 13, 2006

Business

Business

India moves ahead in services trade

Tenth largest importer and exporter of commercial services

NEW DELHI: India has moved one place up to emerge as the world's 29th largest exporter of goods but jumped seven ranks to become the 17th largest importer in global trade during 2005, according to statistics released by the World Trade Organisation.

In services, however, India's rank is far up in the list. The country is now the world's tenth largest importer and exporter of commercial services, compared to 15th and 16th largest, respectively, in 2004, as per the WTO's World Trade Report 2005 released in Geneva.

India's merchandise exports last year grew 19 per cent to $89.8 billion, while the market share rose by 0.1 per cent to 0.9 per cent of global exports.

But imports soared by 35 per cent — largely on the back of rising oil import bill — to $131.6 billion and the country's share in global imports stood at 1.2 per cent.

In services, while exports stood at $67.6 billion, imports were marginally lower at $67.4 billion. The country's share in global services exports and imports was almost equal at 2.8 per cent and 2.9 per cent, respectively.

In merchandise goods, Germany has retained its place as the largest exporter with $970.7 billion, followed by the U.S. at $904.3 billion, China at $762 billion, Japan at $595.8 billion and France at $459.2 billion.

In imports, the U.S. is on top of the list with $1,732.7 billion, followed by Germany at $774.1 billion, China at $660.1 billion, Japan at $516.1 billion and the U.K. at $501.2 billion.

World's merchandise exports and imports rose by 13 per cent each to $10,393.1 billion and $10,753.1 billion, respectively. — PTI

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