A recently published ‘World Trade Statistical Review’ of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) shows, India's global trade engagement in 2015 was better than most of countries in almost every segment where it has a noticeable presence. The volume of world trade continued to grow slowly in 2015 recording a growth of 2.7 per cent, roughly in line with world GDP growth of 2.4 per cent. The dollar value of world commercial services exports fell 6 per cent in 2015 to $4,754 billion, although the decline was less severe than for merchandise, the WTO report says. It attributes the weakness of global trade in 2015 to a number of factors, including an economic slowdown in China, a severe recession in Brazil, falling prices of oil and other commodities, and exchange rate volatility.

The report further says, India did suffer the pangs of global slowdown. India's exports have been on continuous decline for the 18 months until it showed a modest 1.27 per cent growth in June 2016. However, the slowdown was not as bad as most other countries, in most cases.

The WTO report points out that the ranking of the major exporters of chemicals remained mostly unchanged in 2015, with only India improving its position, from tenth to ninth place, replacing China which went down to tenth. In the case of textile exports, India maintained its third position, behind China and the European Union. In the more specific clothing exports, India showed a 2 per cent growth, to become the fourth leading country among the top 10.