An analysis of India’s foreign trade during pre and post economic policy

Abstract

Foreign trade acts as a catalyst for economic growth and development of any country. In order to analyze the impact of new economic policy introduced in 1991 on India’s foreign trade, the time series data has been used to examine the performance and compare the two eras of pre-reform periods (1970- 71 to 1990-91) and post-reform periods (1991-92 to 2017-18). This paper highlights the average growth rate of exports and imports, the contribution of exports and imports to India's GDP, the export value index and the value index of imports in the pre- and post-reform era and reveals that the growth rate of imports is higher than the growth rate of exports in the post-reform periods. This successful Indian transition from a regulated, inward-looking and slow growing economy to a liberalized and transparent economy has found a spot among the world's fastest growing economies.