ternal e tor in ndia      15.15
              cotton yarn, copper, refined and copper                2017), India will remain a top remittance
              alloys unwrought, PoL items, granite,                  recipient country in 2017, followed by
              aluminium ores, other fixed vegetable                  China, the Philippines, and Mexico.
              fats and oils, cyclic hydrocarbons, cotton,            However, the private transfers (gross)
              polymers and iron ore.                                 inflows to India declined by 6.1 per cent
          In the case of Switzerland, the trade deficit              in 2015-16 and 6.5 per cent in 2016-
     is mainly due to import of gold. This deficit has               17. This was due to constrained labour
     fallen in the last two years (2016-17 and 2017-                 market conditions in the source countries,
     18). Moreover, a part of it is used in exports. In              particularly GCC (Gulf Cooperation
     the case of Saudi Arabia and Iraq, the deficit is               Council) countries, largely caused by the
     due to crude oil imports, while for South Korea                 fall in international crude oil prices. Gross
     it is due to import of electrical machinery and                 private transfer inflows fell to US$ 65.6
     equipment and iron and steel.                                   billion and US$ 61.3 billion in 2015-16
                                                                     and 2016-17 respectively from US$ 69.8
     invisibles                                                      billion in 2014-15.
     According to the World Bank, (October, 2017),
     the number of Indian workers emigrating to Saudi
                                                           comPosition of trADe
     Arabia (India’s third largest remittance sender)      Export growth in 2016-17 was fairly broad based
     dropped from 3.0 lakhs in 2015 to 1.6 lakh in         with positive growth in major categories except
     2016; and to the United Arab Emirates (India’s        textiles and allied products, and leather and leather
     largest inward remittance contributor) from 2.2       manufactures. In 2017-18 (April-November)
     lakh in 2015 to 1.6 lakh in 2016. Total Indian        among the major sectors, there was good export
     workers outflow fell from 7.8 lakh in 2015 to         growth in engineering goods and Petroleum crude
     5.1 lakh in 2016. Among the structural factors,       and products; moderate growth in chemicals and
     tightening norms of hiring foreign workers in         related products, and textiles and allied products;
     USA, labour market adjustment in GCC countries        but negative growth in gems and jewellery. Other
     and rising anti-immigration sentiments in many        features have been as given below:
     source countries pose considerable downside risk.               Import of Petroleum, Oil and Lubricants
     Major features are as given below:                              (POL) increased by 4.8 per cent in 2016-
              Notwithstanding uncertainties in the                   17 and 24.2 per cent in 2017-18 (Apr-
              Indian IT industry from tougher visa                   December), mainly due to an increase
              policies in some countries, software exports           in international crude oil price (Indian
              recorded a growth of 2.3 per cent in                   Basket) from US$ 46.2 /bbl in 2015-16
              2017-18. Private transfer receipts, mainly             to US$ 47.6 /bbl in 2016-17 and to US$
              representing remittances by Indians                    53.6 /bbl in 2017-18 (April-December).
              employed overseas, increased by 10.0 per               Among the other important import items,
              cent to US$ 33.5 billion in 2017-18 over               low or negative growth was registered
              the corresponding period of the previous               in most of them in 2016-17, except
              year (April- September).                               electronic goods; ores and minerals and
              India has remained one of the major                    agriculture and allied products.
              recipients of cross border remittances and             Capital goods imports grew marginally,
              according to the World Bank (October                   though the transport equipment sub-