Meteoric rise: India's imports from Russia jumped about five times during this period

Even as the Russia-Ukraine conflict raged on and the West and the US urged countries to stop buying Russian oil, India's imports from Russia increased by orders of magnitude.

Just during the April-February period of this fiscal, India's imports from Russia jumped about five times to $41.56 billion, according to commerce ministry data.

The sharp spike in imports is due to increased inbound shipments of crude oil.    

In 2021–22, Russia was India's 18th-largest import partner with $9.86 billion of imports.

From just 0.2 per cent of all oil imported by India, Russia supplied 28 percent of the total oil imported in January, as per the data.

Due to substantially increased imports, Russia has become India's fourth-largest import source in the first 11 months of the current fiscal year.

Before the Russia-Ukraine war started, Russia's market share in India's import basket was less than 1 per cent, which skyrocketed to 28 per cent in January with 1.27 million barrels per day of oil imports, according to energy cargo tracker Vortexa.

India, the world's third-largest crude importer after China and the United States, has been buying Russian oil that was available at a discount after some in the West shunned it as a means of punishing Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine.

While imports from Russia saw a significant jump, the ministry's data showed that imports from China also rose, by about 6.2 percent to $90.72 billion during the April-February period.

Similarly, imports from the United Arab Emirates also saw a massive jump of 21.5 per cent to $48.88 billion.

US still remains one of the biggest importers to India. India's imports from the US grew by about 19.5 per cent to $46 billion during the April-February period.

On the export front, the US emerged as the top destination for Indian exporters during the 11-month period, accounting for 17.5 per cent of the country's total outbound shipments.

Exports to the US increased to $70.99 billion as against $68.447 billion during the April-February period of 2021–22.

As per the data, exports to the UAE increased to $28.63 billion during the April-February period compared to $24.95 billion in the year-ago period.

Exports to China, however, dipped to $13.64 billion during the period as against $19.81 billion during the April-February period of 2021–22.

(With inputs from PTI)