Comments
Indo-German bilateral trade has touched a record €15 billion in 2010, after witnessing a drop in 2009, according to the German Embassy.
“From January to December 2010, the total volume of bilateral trade increased by an outstanding 17 per cent compared to a negative percentage in 2009. Germany is India's most important trading partner in the European Union,” it said.
The figures have been released by the German Federal Statistical Office.
Indian exports to Germany in the past year rose 21.5 per cent to €6.2 billion.
With 26 per cent of the total value, textiles (€1.5 billion) accounted for the largest share followed by chemical products with €585 million. Data processing, electronic and optical equipment came next with €579 million. The fourth and fifth spots were taken by machinery with €418 million and leather products with €396 million respectively.
“When Prime Minister Mr Manmohan Singh met Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin last year, the two sides renewed their commitment to increase bilateral trade to €20 billion by 2012. With this year's remarkable figure of €15 billion, the target surely looks achievable,” said Germany's Ambassador to India, Mr Thomas Matussek.
The volume of German exports to India increased 14.3 per cent to reach €9.2 billion, compared to drop of 3.5 per cent and decline of 1.2 per cent respectively during the previous years. The top German exports were machinery (€2.9 billion) with a 31 per cent share, chemical products and data processing (€1.2 billion), electronic and optical equipment sectors (€894 million). This was followed by exports of electric equipment and metals and vehicle parts.
Since 2003, Indo-German bilateral trade has grown on an average by 16 per cent per annum. In 2006, the volume of trade crossed €10 billion, three years earlier than targeted. The bilateral trade numbers continued on an upward swing in 2008, with volume of trade reaching €13.4 billion. The recession affected the bilateral trade in 2009, but only marginally, with the figures declining to €13.1 billion.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.