The Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said on Monday that India’s service sector helped the country's “total exports and imports of goods and services to cross the $800 billion mark during the first half of 2023.”
“Total exports of goods and services rose by 1.5 per cent to $385.4 billion during January-June this year, as against $379.5 billion in January-June 2022,” said GTRI.
However, imports dipped by 5.9 percent in the first half of 2023, but service exports grew by 17.7 percent to $166.7 billion, while imports rose by 3.7 percent to $89.8 billion.
GTRI Co-Founder Ajay Srivastava said that the world trade outlook for 2023 is weak for many reasons, including US-led Western sanctions against Russia imposed in the wake of its special military operation in Ukraine; high worldwide inflation; tighter monetary policy, and financial uncertainty.
Exports from countries including the USA, UAE, China, Bangladesh, and Germany, declined in 2023, however, a few countries like the Netherlands, UK and Saudi Arabia saw an uptick in exports.
Srivastava said that India should continue to focus on increasing product quality and supply chain competitiveness and should not surrender its policy, especially in new issues in FTAs (free trade agreements) and the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF).
Regarding oil imports, GTRI said that import of crude petroleum reduced from $79.2 billion in January-June 2022 to $73.2 billion in January-June 2023, a decline of 7.6 percent, however, Russia's share in India's import of crude jumped from 6.4 percent in January-June 2022 to 31.3 percent this year.
"Imports increased from $5.1 billion to $22.9 billion registering a growth of 350 percent," Srivastava said, adding the share of imports from all other major suppliers like Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and UAE has declined substantially during this period.