New Delhi, May 16 -- The expansion of India's trade with China even as commerce with the rest of the world contracted in 2023-24 helped the latter re-emerge as the country's largest trading partner at a time when political relationships between the two continue to be strained.

Data recently released by the commerce ministry show that India's imports from China grew by more than 3% in 2023-24 even as the country's total merchandise goods purchases from overseas fell by almost 6%. Similarly, India's exports to China climbed nearly 9% while total exports contracted by almost 3%.

India's imports from China, which are multiple times its exports to that country, crossed the $100-billion mark in 2023-24 after coming close to that level in the ...