India-China trade deficit expands to $12 billion

There is a 34% surge in the trade deficit b/w India-China that reached $ 12 billion in the first five months of 2013, portraying a grim picture for Indian exports as bilateral trade continued to decrease, discouraging hopes of attaining a trade volume of $ 100 billion by 2015.
Some key facts:

  • The India-China bilateral trade touched $ 26.5 billion till May 2013. The trade deficit for India has expanded year-on-year to $ 12 billion, up by 34%. The trade volume was lowered by over $ 2 billion compared to 2012.
  • While the Chinese exports registered marginal increase the bilateral trade numbers are falling. Exports have declined substantially while imports have risen marginally.
  • Adding to the concerns, India’s main export items like cotton, iron ore and copper have continued their downward slide. Iron ore plunged by 76% to $ 595.42 million. Cotton and copper declined by 40% to $ 1.39 billion and 24% to $ 688.53 million respectively.
  • India’s overall share in Chinese exports has dropped to under 1% from 1.33%. Cotton yarn and diamonds are the other two exports that rounded off the top five. Cotton yarn is the only item which is showing a jump of 115% to reach a value of $ 740 million.
  • Diamonds have increased by 14% to record $ 562.1 million. The Chinese exports to India were increasing by 2.7% year-on-year.

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