India-China trade climbs to $135.98 billion in 2022, trade deficit crosses $100 billion for first time

The trade deficit for India stood at USD 101.02 billion, crossing the 2021 figure of USD 69.38 billion.

This is the first time the trade deficit, a serious concern constantly expressed by India, has crossed the USD 100 billion mark.

In 2021, the overall trade with China totaled USD 125.62 billion, an increase of 43.32 per cent year on year crossing the USD 100 billion mark for the first time.

The trade deficit in 2021 stood at USD 69.56 billion as India's imports from China witnessed an increase of 46.14 per cent to reach USD 97.59 billion.

India's exports to China increased by 34.28 per cent year on year to reach USD 28.03 billion in 2021.

The trade between the two countries continued to boom despite border tensions following the military standoff in eastern Ladakh in May 2020.

According to an official brief on trade posted on the Indian Embassy website in Beijing, "the rapid expansion of India-China bilateral trade since the beginning of this century has propelled China to emerge as India's largest goods trading partner by 2008".

"Since the beginning of the last decade, bilateral trade between the two countries recorded exponential growth. From 2015 to 2021, India-China bilateral trade grew by 75.30 per cent, an average yearly growth of 12.55 per cent", it said.

Also, on the global trade front despite the weakening of the US and European demand and the COVID-19 controls leading to periodic shutdowns of several cities including Shanghai, China posted a trade surplus of USD 877.6 billion in 2022.

As per the customs data, China's overall exports in 2022 rose by seven per cent and imports rose by 1.1 per cent, while China's trade surplus last year stood at USD 877.6 billion China's exports increased to USD 3.95 trillion, decreasing from 2021's high growth of 29.9 per cent while imports increased by 1.1 per cent to USD 2.7 trillion, compared to the previous year's 30.1 per cent rise.