INDIAUK TRADE RISES 15% IN 2017 TO £18 BN

LONDON: Total trade in goods and services between the UK and India was £18 billion in 2017, a 15% increase from 2016, according to figures released by the Department for International Trade on Thursday.

In 2017, UK exports to India amounted to £6.7 billion (a 14.9% increase from 2016) while UK imports from India were £11.3 billion (a 15.0% increase from 2016). Of all UK exports to India during the year, £4.3 billion (64.5%) were goods and £2.4 billion (35.5%) were services.

The Theresa May government has made increasing trade with India a priority in the post-Brexit situation, when the UK is expected to register less trade with the European Union since it will lose access to the European Single Market.

Latest country-rankings show that India was the UK’s 17th largest trading partner (accounting for 1.4% of total UK trade); and the 24th largest export market (accounting for 1.0% of all UK exports).

The top 5 UK services exported to India are travel (28.8% of all UK services exported to India), transportation (19.8%), telecommunications, computer and information services (12.3%), intellectual property (11.0%) and other business services (9.6%).

India’s main exports to the UK are apparel & clothing accessories, power generating machinery & equipment, petroleum, petroleum products & related materials, miscellaneous manufactured articles, textile yarn, fabrics, made up articles, footwear, medicinal & pharmaceutical products, manufactures of metal, road vehicles and other transport equipment.

The main imports from the UK to India are power generating machinery & equipment, nonferrous metals, ferrous ores & metal scrap, general industrial machinery and equipment & machine, transport equipment, beverages, electrical machinery and appliances & electrical parts thereof, professional, scientific and controlling instruments.