Economy in India doing quite well, trade group hears

If you just look at India’s economy, you might not know there was a global economic crisis.
That was the essential message from Anil Mukim, joint secretary of the Indian Ministry of Commerce, who spoke to an audience of Seattle-area business and other leaders April 22.
Mukim pointed to India’s 7 percent GDP growth rate, and the relative stability of its banking sector, as evidence that the Indian economy has had enough domestic growth to buffer it from the collapse of most world markets.
Mukim said India is notable among large Asian economies in that it actually has a trade deficit with the United States, with $21 billion in imports from the U.S. in 2007-2008, versus $20.7 billion in exports.
Much of this is from sales of Boeing aircraft to India, he said.
In response to a question, Mukim acknowledged that despite the size of the Indian market for aircraft, India has been only a minor supplier of aircraft parts and assemblies to Boeing, compared with Japan and China.
Many countries require some manufacture of parts within their borders as a payback for big orders, a process called “offsets.”