India's imports from China grew by 8% from 2014

Chinese imports to India have increased by 7.94 per cent from $60.41 billion in 2014-15 to $65.21 billion in 2020-21, according to the Lok Sabha reply by the commerce minister based on data by the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics(DGCI).

Data show that the imports from China decreased from $65.21 billion in 2020-21 to $59.03 billion till November 2021. Last year, India's imports from China were $59 billion, more than thrice the amount of exports ($15.63 bn) to the neighbouring country in the same period. 

The major import items from China are telecom instruments, computer hardware and peripherals, fertilizers, electronic components/ instruments, project goods, organic chemicals, drug intermediates, consumer electronics, electrical machinery, etc.

Some of our imports from China, like the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and drug formulations, provide the Indian pharma industry raw material for producing finished goods, which are also exported out of India, the statement said.

Chinese imports were static between 2019-20 and 2020-21. For the seven years prior to 2014-15, the imports from China increased by 192 per cent from $17.47 billion in 2006-07 to $51.03 billion in 2013-14.

On the other hand, India's exports to China showed a marginal growth from $11.93 billion in 2014-15 to $21.19 billion in 2020-21. The commodities leading these exports include engineering goods, petroleum products, organic and inorganic chemicals, electronic goods, cotton yarn, marine products, minerals and ores etc.