India-China export
India’s exports to China have increased every month in the first seven months of this financial year. It increased the maximum by 42% in October. This helped the country to reduce the impact of heavy tariffs imposed by America to some extent. Between April and October, goods sent to China increased by 24.7% compared to last year and reached $10.03 billion. Petroleum products, telecom equipment and marine goods performed quite well. However, overall India’s merchandise exports grew marginally by only 0.63%.
An official said that this is the strongest phase of India-China trade in recent years, especially at a time when world demand is weak and many big countries are seeing a decline in their exports. China remains India’s largest supplier of goods, selling goods worth $73.99 billion to India in April-October. During this period, India’s trade deficit with China stood at $64 billion.
High demand for petroleum products
According to the data, exports to China increased by 11% in April, which increased to 28% in July and 33% in September. China was India’s fourth largest export destination during April-October. The good exports to China in October were different from India’s overall export performance. In the same month, due to 50% tax imposed by America from August 27, India’s total exports fell by 11.8% to $34.38 billion.
India’s trade deficit increased to a record $41.68 billion due to higher imports of gold. Separate data for October is not available, but in April-September, exports of petroleum products to China more than doubled to $1.48 billion, which indicates that the demand for industrial fuel in China is very high.
Record export in this sector
Telecom equipment was another fast growing category. Their exports increased more than three times to $778.23 million, which was earlier $207.26 million. The official said that the increase in India’s exports to China for seven consecutive months indicates strong trade relations between the two countries. He said that the situation looks positive for the remaining period of FY26. Export of seafood also increased from $548.36 million to $659.27 million.