Although PM Modi wants to reduce India’s reliance on China, trade has increased drastically.

In the year leading up to March, India’s two-way commerce with China increased by a third, undermining Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts to wean the nation off of its neighbor’s cheap imports and foster a booming domestic economy.

 

In the 12 months leading up to March 2022, total merchandise commerce between China and India increased 34% to $115.83 billion, according to figures from the Commerce Ministry that was presented to parliament last week. The ministry informed that, trade between the two countries so far this year, from April to October, totaled $69.04 billion.

 

India’s government under PM Modi has been working to reduce its dependency on China, which is the largest supplier of imports, in recent years. In the midst of the bloodiest conflict in decades along their disputed Himalayan border, it imposed restrictions on commerce and industry in 2020.

 

Despite these restrictions, imports from China have greatly outpaced exports. As a result, the figures showed that India’s trade imbalance with China in the first seven months of the current fiscal year was $51.50 billion. Comparatively, the reading for the entire fiscal year ending in March 2022 was $73.31 billion.