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UAE-India H1 trade jumps 57% to $20.4b

DUBAI — Non-oil trade exchange between the UAE and India grew by 57 per cent to $20.4 billion in the first half of the year compared to same period last year, according to an official study released on Sunday.

The report was released by the Analysis and Trade Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Trade, or MoFT, on the occasion of the state visit by President of India Mrs Pratibha Devisingh Patil to to the UAE.

The UAE is India’s largest trading partner in term of India’s total trade exchange in the first half of 2010, according to the study which also provides data on investments, trade agreements and venues of economic cooperation between the two countries.

The survey revealed a positive shift from a deficit during the first half of 2009 worth around $2.9 billion to a surplus, in the favour of the UAE, during the first half of 2010 worth $571 million.

The figures show the UAE’s trade deficit India shrinking by 120 per cent as UAE’s total non-oil exports to the sub-continent grew by 75 per cent to reach $4 billion in the first half of 2010, up from $2.3 billion and UAE’s re-exports grew by 136 per cent to reach 6.5 per cent, up from 2.8 over the same period. The study expected the value of trade exchange between both countries to grow from $29.4 billion (Dh108 billion) in 2009 to reach $32.7 billion in 2010. The value of Indian investments in the UAE reached $2.5 billion in 2007 accounting for seven per cent of total foreign direct investment in the UAE.

The study stressed that the figures reflect the strength of existing bilateral ties between the UAE and India and also the strength of the UAE’s economy and the progress it is has been making as a direct outcome of the implementation of the national policy and strategy which mandate increasing economic openness, establishing a free market policy, a diversified economy as well as increasing the UAE’s non-oil exports in order to increase their contribution to the GDP.

The UAE’s non-oil exports to India grew by 75 per cent to reach $4 billion in the first half of 2010, compared by the first half of the previous year. India is the UAE’s largest trade partners in terms of re-exports which, compared by the first half of 2009, grew by 136 per cent to reach $6.5 billion in the first half of 2010.

The UAE is the largest recipient of Indian imports which grew by 24.4 per cent to reach $9.9 billion in the first half of 2010, compared with the same period in 2009.

abdulbasit@khaleejtimes.com