China-India File photo

Trade between China and India reached 619.69 billion yuan ($84.49 billion) during the first eight months of 2023, up 5.2 percent year-on-year, according to data released by the General Administration of Customs of China on Thursday.

From January to August, China's accumulative export volume to India reached 533 billion yuan and maintained a growth rate of 5.2 percent from a year ago. China's import from India in the first eight months stood at 86.69 billion yuan, up 5.7 percent year-on-year.

In August alone, China’s foreign trade with India hit 82.74 billion yuan, up from the 82 billion seen in July.

The growing trade between China and India, despite India’s various crackdown measures to squeeze Chinese investments and companies, reflects the economic dependency between the two countries, Liu Zongyi, secretary-general of the Research Center for China-South Asia Cooperation at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, told the Global Times on Thursday.

India has been attempting to build itself into a global manufacturing hub byimplementing a series of protectionist trade policies to squeeze Chinese investments and companies.

“India is only doing this to satisfy its own nationalist sentiments, but in the context of globalization, this is difficult to achieve and uneconomic,” Liu said.

“Despite trade protectionism, trade with China has not decreased but rather increased, because for Indian companies, they need Chinese products,” Liu added.

In 2022, China-India trade hit a new high, with cross-border trade reaching $135.98 billion, surpassing the $100 billion for a second consecutive year. In yuan terms, China-India trade crossed 905 billion yuan in 2022.

Liu believed that with major Indian festivals approaching in the second half of the year, demand for Chinese products will increase. 

“This year’s bilateral trade between the two countries is expected to surpass the figure of last year in yuan terms and is likely to surpass $120 billion in dollar terms,” Liu said.

Global Times