Bangladesh Unrest Not Likely To Impact India's Overall Trade Balance: S&P

India is a well diversified exporter and a blip in its exports to Bangladesh is unlikely to have any meaningful impact on India's overall trade position for the full year, S&P Global Ratings said on Tuesday. Bangladesh is facing its worst political crisis since independence in 1971, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigning amid massive anti-government protests.

Bangladesh Army Chief General Waqar-uz-Zaman on Monday announced that an interim government would be taking over the responsibilities. S&P Global Ratings, Director, Sovereign and International Public Finance Ratings (Asia-Pacific), Andrew Wood said that S&P expects domestic demand conditions in Bangladesh in this period of time to be weak and probably going to entail less support for exports from other countries, including India, into Bangladesh.

"India is a well diversified exporter to the entire world and its trade profile is significantly larger than bilateral trade relationships with economies like Bangladesh. "Whatever the impact is going to be on directly is really quite unlikely to have a meaningful impact on its overall trade position for the fiscal year... its external position is quite strong in the country and is a net creditor to the world by our calculation," Wood said in a webinar. Bangladesh is India's biggest trade partner in South Asia, while India is the second biggest trade partner of the neighbouring country in Asia.

India's exports to Bangladesh dipped to USD 11 billion in 2023-24 from USD 12.21 billion in 2022-23. Imports too declined to USD 1.84 billion in the last fiscal, from USD 2 billion in 2022-23. India's main exports include vegetables, coffee, tea, spices, sugar, confectionery, refined petroleum oil, chemicals, cotton, iron and steel, and vehicles. The main import items are fish, plastic, leather, and apparel, among others.

(PTI)