Page 468 - ES 2020-21_Volume-1-2 [28-01-21]

External Sector 95

3.10 India’s merchandise trade balance for major countries for the period of 2020-21 (April-
November) as compared to 2019-20 (April-November) at Table 3 shows that India had the most
favourable trade balance with USA followed by Bangladesh and Nepal. The highest trade deficit
is with China followed by Iraq and Saudi Arabia during April-November, 2020-21 and April-
November, 2019-20.
Table 3: India's Merchandise Trade Balance with Major Countries
(Value in US$ billion)
Export Import Trade Balance
Apr-Nov Apr-Nov Apr-Nov Apr-Nov Apr-Nov Apr-Nov
S.No. Country 2019-20 2020-21 2019-20 2020-21 2019-20 2020-21
(R) (P) (R) (P) (R) (P)
1 U S A 35.6 31.3 25.1 16.3 10.5 15.0
2 Bangladesh 5.3 5.0 0.8 0.6 4.5 4.4
3 Nepal 4.8 3.4 0.5 0.4 4.3 3.0
4 U K 5.7 4.6 4.5 2.6 1.2 2.0

5 Netherland 5.7 3.8 2.4 1.9 3.4 1.9
6 Sri Lanka 2.6 2.1 0.6 0.4 2.0 1.7
7 Turkey 3.4 2.3 1.5 0.9 1.9 1.4
8 Qatar 0.8 0.8 6.0 4.6 -5.3 -3.8
9 South Korea 3.1 2.9 10.9 7.1 -7.8 -4.2
10 Indonesia 2.5 2.7 9.6 7.3 -7.0 -4.6
11 Switzerland 0.8 0.9 12.8 5.8 -12.0 -4.9

12 Saudi Arabia 3.8 3.6 18.2 9.2 -14.4 -5.6
13 Iraq 1.3 1.0 15.4 7.6 -14.1 -6.6
14 China 11.5 13.6 46.9 38.8 -35.4 -25.2
Source: DoC
Note: R: Revised; P: Provisional.
Merchandise Exports

3.11 Total exports during April-December, 2020-21 amounted to US$ 200.8 billion contracted
by (-) 15.7 per cent as compared with (-) 2.4 per cent during the same period of the previous
year. Petroleum, Oil and Lubricants (POL) exports, which constitute about 10-15 per cent of
the total exports, have contributed negatively to export performance during the period under
review. The fall in POL exports was largely driven by the softening of international crude oil
prices, which plunged in Q1: FY 2020-21 by (-) 54.0 per cent and remain muted by (-) 28.7
per cent by Q3: FY 2020-21 as compared to last year. On the other hand, Non-POL exports,
which contributed significantly to the shrinkage of exports in Q1 of 2020-21, turned positive
and helped in improving export performance in Q3 (Figure 4). Within Non-POL exports,
agriculture & allied products, drugs &pharmaceutical and ores & minerals proved resilient
and recorded expansion. However, key commodities such as organic and inorganic chemicals,
electronic goods, textiles & allied products, engineering products, gems and jewellery pulled
export growth down (Figure 5).