India's rank unchanged at 19th among top 30 exporters

Geneva: India's rank remained unchanged at 19th in 2015 in the list of top 30 merchandise exporters of the world, according to a WTO report.

China continues to hold the top position in the list.

However, India's ranking among top importers slipped by one notch to 13th in 2015, from 12th in previous year. In imports, the US topped the list.

India's exports dipped by 17.2 percent to USD 267 billion last year while imports aggregated at USD 392 billion. In 2014, the country's outbound and inbound shipments aggregated at USD 317 billion and USD 460 billion respectively.

Slowdown in the gobal demand hit India's exports in 2015 and this year too the shipments are in the negative zone.

Further, India's rank remained unchanged at 8th last year among the top 30 leading exporters of commercial services respectively. This list was topped by the US in both exports and imports. In imports, India positioned 10th.

In 2015, India's commercial services exports aggregated at USD 158 billion while imports were USD 126 billion.

Indian government has announced a host of incentives with an aim to nearly double goods and services exports to USD 900 billion by 2019-2020.

The report said that China registered the highest merchandise trade by value in 2015 with USD 2,275 billion worth of exports.

Total world merchandise exports were USD 16,482 billion whereas imports were USD 16,766 billion.

"Exports of developed and developing countries should grow at around the same rate in 2016, 2.9 percent in the former and 2.8 percent in the latter. Meanwhile, imports of developed economies are expected to outpace those of developing countries in 2016, with a 3.3 percent rise in the former compared to a 1.8 percent increase in the latter," it said.

Falling for the 15th month in a row, exports dipped 5.66 percent in February to USD 20.73 billion due to contraction in shipments of petroleum and engineering goods amid tepid global demand.