India's imports of sensitive items up 8 per cent in April-January 2010-11

Import of sensitive items into the country stood at Rs58,715 crore during April-January 2010-11, against Rs54,375 crore during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal - an 8 per cent increase for the 10-month period.

As a percentage of the country's total imports, imports of sensitive items, however, were lower at 4.7 per cent during April-January 2010-11 against 4.9 per cent during the previous year period.

Overall imports of the country during the 10-month period stood at Rs12,48,141 crore during April-January 2010-11 against Rs11,07,732 crore during the similar period of the previous fiscal.

Imports of pulses, cotton and silk, spices, tea and coffee have declined at broad group level during the period. Imports of all other items, viz, edible oil, automobiles, fruits and vegetables (including nuts), rubber, products of SSI, milk and milk products, alcoholic beverages, marble and granite and foodgrains have increased during the period.

Import of edible oils has increased to Rs23,991 crore in the during April-January 2010-11 from Rs21,235 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.

Import of crude edible oils has gone up by 17.4 per cent while that of refined oil has gone down by 9.9 per cent during the period. Edible oil import mainly comprised crude palm oil and its fractions.

Imports of sensitive items from Indonesia, China, Argentina, Malaysia, South Korea, United States, Germany, Ukraine, Thailand, Australia, United Kingdom, Tanzania, Vietnam etc have gone up while those from Myanmar, Brazil, Canada, Japan Cote D' Ivoire, Czech Republic etc have gone down, official data showed.