India’s trade deficit with China races beyond $100 bn

India’s trade deficit with China races beyond $100 bn

• India’s bilateral trade with China reached are cord $135.98 billion in 2022, driven by surging Indian imports of Chinese goods that were up by more than 21% last year.
• India’s exports to China, however, fell in 2022, driving an already significant trade deficit beyond the$100 billion mark for thefirst time. 
• Figures released by the General Administration of Customs (GAC) in Beijing showed two­way trade was up by 8.4% lastyear to $135.98 billion, with India’s imports accounting for $118.5 billion, up from $97.5 billion. 
• India’s exports to China fell from $28.1 billion to$17.48 billion. The trade deficit reached $101.02 billion, up by 45%, from $69.4 billion in 2021.

Rise in govt. Capital spending pushes up investments by 53%

• A sharp 61.2% sequential increase in capital spending by the Central and State governments propped up overall fresh investment plans announced in the third quarter (Q3) of 2022­23 to ₹7.1lakh crore, even though private sector investments dropped 41% from ₹6.31 lakh crore in Q2 to ₹3.71lakh crore between October and December 2022.
• Despite a 15.5% quarter-on-quarter decline in overall new investment plans in Q3, investment projects in the first nine months have crossed ₹21 lakh crore. This is 53.2% higher than 2021­22 and almost 2.5times the investment plans announced in the pre-COVID year of 2019.
• The number of new projects announced in2022­23 is 7,555, a tad lower than the 7,978 projects in the first nine months of 2021­22. But big-ticket private investments and higher capex outlays from government agencies lifted the total investment to ₹21, 14,773 crore compared with ₹13, 80,540 crore over the corresponding period ayear earlier.
• Private sector investment project numbers dropped from 3,585 projects in April to December2021 to 2,787 in 2022­23 so far, but the value of investments was ₹13.6 lakh crore, almost 38% higher than 2021­22.