Data provided by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation indicates that in 2019, the non-oil bilateral trade between the UAE and India has seen a surge of 15.3% to $41.4 billion. Emirates has recorded an overall increase of 4.4% in its global non-oil trade.
Non-oil exports and re-exports from the UAE to Asia’s third-largest economy in 2019 were valued at $14.7 billion while imports from India are estimated to be $26.7 billion.
According to the data, “India emerged as the top global destinations for the Emirates’ non-oil exports between 2014 and 2019 as it became the second top global source of imports for the second-largest Arab economy. India was also the third top global destination for non-oil re-exports from the UAE in 2019”.
India is also the top source of foreign direct investment in a number of UAE’s sectors, including oil and gas, chemicals, real estate, financial services, and hotels and tourism.
Both UAE and India had set $100 billion trade targets by 2020, but currently, this seems unlikely due to pandemic and its impact on the economy. In 2018, India was the third-largest trading partner of UAE after the US and China as the trade had hit $57 billion in that year.
According to data released by the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority (FCSA), “all non-oil-related trade indexes in the UAE improved in 2019, led by the export and re-export trade indices, with the latter amounting to $1.24 billion against $1.17 billion in 2018, accounting for 28.5 percent of total foreign trade”.
