Indo-British Trade

High Commission of India, London
Indo-British Economic & Commercial Relations

INDO-UK COMMERCIAL & ECONOMIC RELATIONS: TRADE

UK is India’s second largest trading partner. Trade turnover has grown from around £1.8 bn in 1991 to £2.93 bn in 1999. Trade figures are as follows:

Source : Office of National Statistics, UK (in £ Millions)

	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
India's Exports	777	864	1090	1290	1435	1611	1622	1453	1482
Growth %	-2.9	11.2	26.2	18.3	11.2	12.26	0.68	-10.42	1.99
India's Imports	1017	946	1130	1313	1683	1707	1575	1255	1454
Growth %	-19.5	-7.0	19.5	16.2	28.2	1.43	-7.73	-20.32	15.86
Total Trade	1794	1810	2220	2603	3118	3318	3197	2709	2936
Growth %	-13.1	0.9	22.7	17.3	19.8	6.41	-3.65	-15.30	8.36
Trade Balance	-240	-82	-40	-23	-248	-96	47	198	26

CLICK HERE TO SEE COMPARATIVE FIGURES GRAPH

2. Around 1.6% of UK’s total imports are from India, while around 2% of UK’s total exports are to India. Similarly, around 7% of India’s total exports are to UK, while around 5% of India’s total imports are from UK. UK is the second largest importer of Indian goods after the United States. Following are the respective shares in the last two years:

Source: Office of National Statistics, UK (in £ billions)

	IMPORTS	EXPORTS	TOTAL TRADE
JAN-DEC 1998	88.38	69.69	158.07
JAN-DEC 1999	92.95	69.38	162.33
% CHANGE	5.17%	0.4%	2.7%
INDIA’S SHARE (JAN-DEC 1998)	1.45 (1.64%)	1.26 (1.81%)	2.71 (1.71%)
INDIA’S SHARE (JAN-DEC 1999)	1.48 (1.59%)	1.45 (2.09%)	2.93 (1.81%)

3. Major items of Indian exports to the UK are ready-made garments, textiles, engineering goods, leather and leather products, gold jewellery, plastic and linoleum products, tea and pharmaceuticals. Broadly, agricultural and allied products constitute about 15% and manufactured goods about 85% of the Indian export basket to the UK. Major imports from the UK include unworked diamonds, engineering goods, specialised industrial, electrical and project goods, transport equipment, organic chemicals, paper products, ferrous and non-ferrous metals. Broadly, imports from UK largely consists of capital goods machinery and equipment (35%), unworked diamonds (30%), manufactured goods (20%), and raw materials intermediaries (15%).

INDO-UK BILATERAL TRADE : 1994 to 1999 (In £’000)


ITEM	*Jan-Dec 94*	*Jan-Dec95*	*Jan-Dec 96*	*Jan-Dec 97*	*Jan-Dec 98*	*Jan-Dec 99*
INDIAN EXPORTS
Manufactured Goods
Section I
Ready-made Garments	244,009	279,757	280,938	235,960	202,307	226,055
Textiles	228,386	263,921	290,101	277,651	254,328	223,622
Hand Tools	4,704	3,964	4,758	4,956	4,530	5,122
Safety Razors & Razor Blades	4,148	4,300	4,468	5,570	4,169	2,305
Household Articles	5,102	6319	6,111	7,730	8,520	7,296
Turbo Jets	35,358	15,843	26,978	20,504	4,067	2,061
Miscellaneous Engineering Goods	182,013	242,905	274,761	299,071	264,614	296,975
Organic Chemicals	16,912	29,690	37,058	42,843	41,656	40,423
Dyeing, Tanning & Colouring Materials	28,092	27,824	27,723	30,469	21,478	18,025
Medical & Pharmaceutical Products	4,668	6986	8,830	10,520	13,700	7,337
Miscellaneous Chemicals	17,290	20,366	22,155	24,581	19,479	17,020
Essential Oils	2,066	2,554	2,669	3,787	4,308	4,351
*Total of Section I*	*772,748*	*904,429*	*986,550*	*963,642*	*843,156*	*850,592*
Section II
Gold Jewellery	45,045	54,131	60,836	72,161	70,490	75,724
Leather Garments	42,712	37,329	33,499	36,279	27,371	33,729
Footwear	36,606	41,483	53,913	60,939	63,006	79,458
Shoe Uppers	40,616	41,414	44,235	43,921	40,928	37,258
Finished Leather	19,112	15,805	15,141	11,820	8,725	7,674
Leather Bags, etc.	23,298	27,164	29,701	32,695	32,876	29,981
Carpets	12,955	13,564	14,973	17,660	18,216	20,697
Jute	10,617	8,983	12,607	13,739	8,799	7,825
Brass Artware	9,107	9,299	7,398	6,058	5,938	6,442
Sports Goods	9,446	11,280	10,783	11,792	11,777	9,485
Granite	5,957	5,281	6,145	7,661	7,059	7,134
*Total of Section II*	*255,471*	*265,733*	*289,231*	*314,725*	*295,185*	*315,407*
Other Manufactured Goods	55,496	58,556	68,091	77,165	105,411	93,128
*Total Manufactured Goods*	*1,083,715*	*1,228,718*	*1,343,872*	*1,355,532*	*1,243,752*	*1,259,127*
Agricultural Products & Raw Materials
Animal Feed	29,260	11,070	16,512	4,244	154	285
Marine Products	28,739	31,612	29,239	21,395	12,779	22,083
Rice	17,287	21,107	40,003	51,067	46,645	46,985
Tea	39,064	28,860	33,978	37,484	34,633	32,883
Tobacco	12,166	12,482	18,256	29,369	16,757	17,781
Cashew nuts	15,427	13,946	19,046	17,275	17,365	27,061
Groundnuts	6,178	4,687	12,725	16,679	13,747	5,446
Walnuts	1,356	1,945	900	1,095	729	1,239
Medicinal Herbs	2,758	3,628	3,734	1,434	1,534	789
Animal Bones & Horns	2,920	2,924	3,571	2,891	2,013	1,679
Castor Oil	2,112	1,987	2,180	769	619	1,533
Preserved Fruits/Vegetable	1,335	1,845	2,569	2,554	2,417	2,834
Mucilages & Thickeners	1,477	1,974	2,496	3,735	5,056	3,820
Mica	497	647	611	371	618	519
Miscellaneous Agricultural Products	44,649	68,049	81,304	76,436	55,090	58,287
*Total Agricultural Products*	*205,225*	*206,763*	*267,124*	*266,798*	*210,156*	*223,224*
Total Indian Exports	1,288,940	1,435,481	1,610,996	1,622,330	1,453,908	1,482,351
INDIAN IMPORTS
Section I
Food Items	9,314	1,848	4,533	7,576	5,516	7,661
Beverages	6,389	8,652	7,906	9,416	7,995	6,870
Fibre Waste	6,282	10,458	9,518	5,698	4,129	4,156
Metal Waste, (Iron & Cooper)	46,016	44,203	47,063	46,711	14,882	38,166
Miscellaneous Crude Metals (inedible excluding fuel)	8,327	11979	8,565	12,164	9,277	11,101
Lubricants	12,588	13,285	27,935	19,836	9,927	37,282
Organic Chemicals	22,176	32,349	52,149	23,389	20,110	28,257
Dyes & Colouring Materials	12,282	15,097	14847	12,841	10,220	10,123
Pharmaceutical Products (Penicillin)	15,908	15,711	15,481	24,542	22,754	20,029
Polypropylene (plastic in primary form)	8,247	13,147	12,557	11,728	11,015	8,816
Miscellaneous Chemicals	29,249	36,580	37,781	43,020	34,566	42,700
Paper, Paperboard & articles of paper	9,653	30,157	50,102	35,915	38,288	24,027
*Total of Section I*	*186,431*	*233,466*	*288,437*	*252,836*	*188,679*	*239,188*
Section II
Diamonds Unworked	523,868	537,789	505,905	481,223	350,622	530,441
Forgings of Metal, etc.	46,493	57,074	72,546	57,546	26,201	20,467
Parts of various Engines	109,349	123,422	162,049	100,143	91,434	101,805
Specialised Machinery	79,893	104,391	106,522	83,227	66,960	53,384
Industrial Machinery	74,168	111,364	114,382	99,462	105,978	61,836
Electrical Machinery	33,998	72,014	55,442	69,114	50,272	53,371
Transport Equipment	60,867	132,158	97,414	103,651	66,241	81,139
Misc. Machinery & Equipments	37,688	89,404	81,724	97,819	65,576	65,312
Professional/Scientific Equipments	40,064	60,269	62,389	60,236	68,200	72,755
Miscellaneous Manufactured Goods	118,267	160,898	559,276	167,561	174,129	171,137
Construction Materials	409	160	720	2,613	1,078	3,201
*Total of Section II*	*1,006,797*	*1,288,345*	*1,418,169*	*1,322,595*	*1,066,691*	*1,214,848*
Totals Imports from UK	1,311,495	1,682,709	1,706,606	1,575,431	1,255,370	1,454,036

TOTAL TURNOVER	2,600,435	3,118,190	3,317,602	3,197,761	2,709,278	2,936,387

Trade Surplus/-Deficit for India	-22,555	-247,228	-95,610	46,899	198,538	28,315

The above trade figures are based on the Office of National Statistics, UK. These would be different from the statistics compiled by the DGCI&S Calcutta, inter-alia on account of the exports shown on fob basis in the exporting country being recorded on cif basis in the importing country and vice-versa; time lag between shipment and arrival; imports through third countries; differences in valuation and the period of computation i.e. calendar year in the case of the UK and financial year in the case of DGCI&S.

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