Washington (PTI): Recession in the US has led to shuffling of its import basket from India with the share of gems and jewellery, carpets and apparels dropping while pharmaceuticals and iron and steel strengthening presence in the American market in 2008.
On a decrease in US' total imports from India, gems and jewellery saw its contribution dip from 25.73 per cent in 2007 to 21.7 per cent in 2008 while carpets' share fell to 2.20 per cent last year from 2.56 per cent the previous year and apparels to 7 per cent in 2008 from 7.9 per cent in 2007, according to the US commerce department estimates.
However, export of Indian pharmaceutical products in the US increased to USD 1.48 billion (a 5.7 per cent share) last year from USD 85.59 million (3.72 per cent) in 2007 and iron and steel items was up from 5.11 per cent in 2007 to 6.5 per cent in 2008.
India exported USD 924.057 million worth iron and steel products last year, as against USD 449.85 million earlier, the data stated.
"Due to the global slowdown, demand was low in the US...We hope that sales will pick-up in this fiscal," Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council Chairman Basant Mehta said.
America's total imports from India stood at USD 25.76 billion in 2008 against USD 24.073 billion in 2007, falling 6.5 per cent, according to the data.
Source : The Hindu