Weekly Numerics | Russia’s rising share in India’s oil basket, fall in net FDI, and more

A weekly series from Moneycontrol

Weekly Numerics is a weekly column where we bring you three to five charts based on major events or interesting data points that emerged during the week. Several key numbers were released in the week gone by. Here are some of the figures we found interesting.

Rising share of Russia in India’s oil imports

India’s oil imports from Russia surged more than 204 percent in the five months of FY24, making the country India’s biggest source of crude oil, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

The official data shows that the discounted seaborne oil from Russia accounted for nearly 40 percent of India’s total crude oil imports between April 2023 and August 2023. India imported 94.81 million metric tonnes of crude oil during this period, out of which 37.56 million metric tonnes came from Russia.

While Russia’s share grew, India’s oil imports from OPEC countries have seen a decline. There has been a nearly 16 percent decline in oil imports from Iraq, which was the biggest source of oil during the same period last year.

Meanwhile, oil imports from Saudi Arabia registered a fall of over 10 percent, the UAE 60 percent, and Kuwait 40 percent.

Net FDI dips

According to data from the RBI, net foreign direct investment (FDI) saw a significant decline between April and August this year to reach $2.99 billion from $18.03 billion last year. Net FDI refers to the foreign investment inflows to India minus foreign direct investments by India in other countries.

India received $7.28 billion as FDI during the first five months of this fiscal year, down from $22.79 billion during the same period last year. Meanwhile, money invested by India in other countries has gone down marginally from $4.76 billion to $4.28 billion.

There has also been a significant decline in global deals involving mergers and acquisitions (M&A), reaching a 10-year low, adversely impacting the global FDI cycle, which was already in a slump.

According to the RBI, repatriation/disinvestment by those who made investments in India has also been a reason for the decline in net FDI. Repatriation has risen from $11.41 billion to $19.63 billion during the first five months of this fiscal year.

Rail freight on the right track

The revenue-earning freight traffic of Indian Railways grew by 6.7 percent year-on-year (YoY) in September 2023, according to data tracked by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). This is the highest growth recorded in the last 12 months. As much as 123.5 million tonnes of freight were carried by railways in September.

In fact, barring food grains and fertilisers, all commodities recorded growth in their rail freight in September.