Direction of Imports

India’s trading partners have been divided into five major groups.

OECD, OPEC, Eastern Europe, Developing Nations and Others.

The importance of OECD as a group declined considerably over the period 1960-61 to 2010-11. The share of this group in India’s import expenditure was 78 per cent in 1960-61 which fell to 29.9 per cent in 2010-11.

The share of this group in India’s import expenditure was 78 per cent in 1960-61 which fell to 29.9 per cent in 2010-11.

The share of the group of oil exporting countries ( OPEC) increased from 4.6 per cent in 1960-61 to 33.8 per cent in 2010-11. one third of total imports are now from OPEC countries.

Due to the set back to communist régimes in this block during the last two decades , the share of Eastern Europe in imports declined considerably and was only 1.6 per cent in 2010-11.

Developing countries have increased their share considerably in India's imports countries. They accounted for 32.7 per cent in 2010-11.

Important facts regarding India’s country wise imports are

In the year 1950-51 the share of UK in India’s imports was 20.8 per cent and that was USA was 18.3 percent.

This reflected colonial heritage of the country.

Within a decade, the picture showing some changes.

New trading partners like West Germany, Canada, USSR emerged.

There was a change in the relative position of UK and USA as well, with the latter pushing down the former to the second place.

During the planning period as a whole, India has obtained maximum imports from USA, the reason being that India has imported large scale quantities of capital goods, intermediate products and food grains from that country.

With the expansion of trading relations with japan, West Germany and USSR., the dependence on UK declined considerably.

The share of UK in India’s imports declined from 19.4 per cent in 1960-61 to 1.4 per cent in 2010-11.

The share of Japan stood at only 2.3 per cent in 2010-11.

Imports from USSR were negligible in 1960-61 and thereafter,, they increased rapidly thanks to bilateral trade agreements with that country.

With the disintegration of USSR, the direction of imports changed considerably.

In 2010-11, China occupied the first position in India’s imports (share 11.4 per cent), followed by UAE (share 8.0 per cent), Switzerland (6.1 per cent), Saudi Arabia (5.7 per cent), USA (5.0 per cent), Germany 93.2 per cent), Iran ( 3.0 per cent) Australia 2.9 per cent) and South Korea (2.8 per cent).