India's global trade in services and goods has risen phenomenally in the last five years to constitute over 54 per cent of its gross domestic product, reflecting a greater integration with the world economy.
In 2003-04, the country's exports and imports in both services and merchandise in relation to its GDP was only 30.9 per cent. These have now crossed well over half the size of the Indian economy, according to the official data released here today.
"India's greater integration with the world economy is reflected in the trade openness indicator," a Finance Ministry paper on the state of the economy said.
The merchandise trade as a percentage of India's GDP increased from 23.7 per cent in 2003-04 to 41 per cent in 2008-09. "If the services trade is included, the indicator is higher at 54.2 per cent in 2008-09, reflecting greater degree of openness," the paper said.
"In the last 4-5 years our exports and imports are growing phenomenally...Increasing external trade reflects India's greater openness. However, the ongoing global economic crisis has briefly interrupted the integration of India with the world economy," CRISIL's Principal Economist D K Joshi said.