Bop Surplus For Fifth Year In A Row

The balance of payment (BoP) showed a surplus for the fifth time in a row, of $5.856 billion in 2001.

In the previous fiscal, the BoP surplus was higher at $6.402 billion.

A higher export growth coupled with lower growth in the import improved the merchandise trade deficit to $14.4 billion in 2000-01 as compared to $17.8 billion in the year before. The export growth during the last fiscal was 19.6 per cent as compared to 9.6 per cent growth in 1999-2000, while the import growth decelerated to seven per cent in 2000-01 from 16.5 per cent in the previous financial year. The net invisible inflow, however, was marginally low at $11.791 billion for the year 2000-01 as against $13.143 billion in 1999-2000.

The ratio of exports to GDP improved from 8.3 per cent in 1999-2000 to 9.4 per cent in 2000-01, while the import to GDP ratio increased marginally from 12.3 per cent to 12.4 per cent. The current account deficit declined to 0.5 per cent of GDP in 2000-01 from one per cent in 1999-2000.

Net capital flows, however, lower at $9.023 billion in the last fiscal as compared to $10.444 billion due to a decline in the external assistance and external commercial borrowing, though $5.5 billion of India Millennium Deposit inflow made up a bit. The share of equity flows in the net capital flows increased to 56.6 per cent in 2000-01 as compared to 49.7 per cent in 1999-2000. The external debt-GDP ratio remained little changed at 21.4 per cent in 2000-01 as against 21.9 per cent in the fiscal before.