01Key Takeaways
- India imported $672.14 billion worth of goods in 2023, down 8.25% from $732.57 billion in 2022, tracking softer global commodity prices.
- Mineral fuels led every import category at 32.82% ($220.59 billion), the crude oil that feeds India's massive refining industry.
- Pearls, precious stones, and jewelry ranked third at 10.81% ($72.66 billion), largely rough diamonds imported for Surat's cutting and polishing industry.
- China supplied 18.15% of imports, worth $121.97 billion, India's largest single source.
025-Year Trend
| Year | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Value | $478.9B | $368.0B | $570.4B | $732.6B | $672.1B |
03Top Import Markets (2023)
| Rank | Partner | Value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China | $122.0B | 18.1% |
| 2 | Russia | $67.1B | 10.0% |
| 3 | United States | $42.1B | 6.3% |
| 4 | United Arab Emirates | $37.5B | 5.6% |
| 5 | Saudi Arabia | $34.6B | 5.2% |
| 6 | Iraq | $29.8B | 4.4% |
| 7 | Indonesia | $24.0B | 3.6% |
| 8 | South Korea | $19.6B | 2.9% |
| 9 | Japan | $18.8B | 2.8% |
| 10 | Switzerland | $18.6B | 2.8% |
04Top Import Categories (2023)
| Rank | Category | Value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mineral Fuels, Mineral Oils and Products of their Distillation; Bituminous Substances; Mineral Waxes | $220.6B | 32.8% |
| 2 | Electrical Machinery and Equipment and parts thereof; Sound Recorders and Reproducers, Television Image and Sound Recorders and Reproducers, and Parts and Accessories of such Articles | $76.1B | 11.3% |
| 3 | Natural or Cultured Pearls, Precious or Semi-Precious Stones, Precious Metals, Metals Clad with Precious Metal, and Articles thereof; Imitation Jewellery; Coin | $72.7B | 10.8% |
| 4 | Nuclear Reactors, Boilers, Machinery and Mechanical Appliances; Parts thereof | $57.1B | 8.5% |
| 5 | Organic Chemicals | $27.3B | 4.1% |
| 6 | Plastics and Articles thereof | $22.6B | 3.4% |
| 7 | Iron and Steel | $18.9B | 2.8% |
| 8 | Animal or Vegetable Fats and Oils and their Cleavage Products; Prepared Edible Fats; Animal or Vegetable Waxes | $16.6B | 2.5% |
| 9 | Optical, Photographic, Cinematographic, Measuring, Checking, Precision, Medical or Surgical Instruments and Apparatus; Parts and Accessories thereof | $12.6B | 1.9% |
| 10 | Fertilisers | $10.4B | 1.6% |
05Trade Partner Map
06Analysis
Crude Oil and Rough Diamonds Reveal the Other Side of India's Trade Story
India imported $672.14 billion worth of goods in 2023. Mineral fuels led every category at 32.82% of the total, worth $220.59 billion, the crude oil that feeds India's massive refining industry, including Reliance Industries' Jamnagar complex covered on the export side of this story. India's imports of discounted Russian crude peaked at 2.1 million barrels a day, roughly 45% of its total crude imports, in June 2024. That is well above the pre-war baseline of around 600,000 barrels a day, even though Reliance itself has stopped buying Russian oil for its export-focused Jamnagar plant. That import volume is a large part of what makes it possible for India to refine and re-export as much fuel as it does, and it helps explain why mineral fuels dwarf every other import category by such a wide margin.
Electrical machinery ranked second at 11.32% ($76.06 billion), much of it components and parts feeding India's growing electronics-assembly industry rather than finished consumer devices. Pearls, precious stones, and jewelry took third at 10.81% ($72.66 billion), largely rough, uncut diamonds imported to be cut and polished in Surat before being re-exported as finished gems, the mirror image of the polished-diamond export story. India's diamond trade bodies called a voluntary two-month halt on rough diamond imports in late 2023 to counter a supply glut, after the country's polished-diamond exports had already fallen 25% year over year in the first eight months of the year. Cutting off the rough-diamond pipeline for two months was a deliberate attempt to let inventory work through the system before prices fell further. Machinery and mechanical appliances added 8.49% ($57.06 billion), a category tied to the same industrial base as electrical machinery.
Organic chemicals contributed 4.06% ($27.26 billion), and plastics and articles thereof added 3.36% ($22.59 billion), both inputs into India's large domestic manufacturing sector. Iron and steel took 2.81% ($18.92 billion), and animal, vegetable, and microbial fats and oils, largely edible cooking oils, contributed 2.46% ($16.55 billion), since India's own oilseed production doesn't fully cover domestic demand. Optical, photographic, and medical instruments added 1.88% ($12.62 billion), and fertilizers closed out the top ten categories at 1.55% ($10.42 billion), a category critical to supporting India's vast agricultural sector.
China Supplies Nearly a Fifth of Everything India Imports
China supplied 18.15% of India's imports in 2023, worth $121.97 billion, by far the largest single source, reflecting India's reliance on Chinese electronics components and machinery. Russia followed at 9.98% ($67.07 billion), consistent with the discounted crude oil flows described above and a dramatic rise from the small share Russia held before 2022. United States took 6.27% ($42.12 billion). Together, these top three suppliers made up 34.39% of total import value, roughly comparable to the concentration seen on India's export side.
United Arab Emirates added 5.59% ($37.54 billion), and Saudi Arabia contributed 5.15% ($34.64 billion), both major Gulf oil suppliers feeding India's refineries alongside Russian crude. Iraq took 4.44% ($29.84 billion), another significant crude source and, in some years, India's single largest oil supplier. Indonesia added 3.58% ($24.03 billion), and South Korea contributed 2.92% ($19.64 billion). Japan took 2.79% ($18.75 billion), and Switzerland closed out the top ten list at 2.77% ($18.60 billion), likely tied to precious-metals and gem trading rather than manufactured goods.
Imports Fell in 2023 as Commodity Prices Cooled
India's import total climbed for three straight years before falling in 2023. It stood at $478.88 billion in 2019, then fell to $367.98 billion in 2020 as the pandemic disrupted global trade. It rebounded sharply to $570.40 billion in 2021, then jumped further to $732.57 billion in 2022 as fuel and commodity prices spiked worldwide. The 2023 total of $672.14 billion, down 8.25% year over year, marks the first annual decline in this five-year window.
That decline tracks closely with the 4.70% drop in India's export total over the same year, since both sides of India's trade ledger are heavily exposed to the same crude oil and commodity prices. Cheaper crude in 2023 meant a smaller import bill for the same physical volume of oil, even as India kept importing near-record volumes of discounted Russian crude. Falling diamond demand added to the pullback on the import side too, since fewer rough diamonds needed to flow into Surat once polished exports were already sliding. Both halves of India's merchandise trade moved down together in 2023, a pattern that says more about global commodity-price cycles than about any change in underlying Indian demand.