IANS

Dubai, June 21: By accounting for over 14 percent of Dubai's imports, India was its largest trade partner in the first four months of this year, figures released Sunday show.

"India has the biggest share of the imports of 17.1 billion dirhams, that is 14.8 percent of Dubai's total imports," said Ahmed Butti, Director General of Dubai Customs.

China came second with 10.1 billion dirhams, followed by the US with 7.8 billion dirhams.

Dubai's exports registered a 14 percent increase, touching 180.7 billion dirhams between Januaray and April, as compared to 159.1 billion dirhams in the same period last year.

According to the Statistics Department of Dubai Customs, the growth has been recorded in all trade activities including exports, imports and re-exports between January and April.

The import value also increased by 9 percent between January and April 2010, reaching 115.6 billion as compared to 105.6 billion dirhams last year.

Dubai's exports accounted for 20.4 billion dirhams, up 36 percent from last year's 15 billion dirhams during the same period.

In re-exports, Dubai recorded 16 percent growth with 44.6 billion dirhams as compared to last year's 38.4 billion dirhams. India topped with 25.4 percent of Dubai's total re-exports, while those to Iran and Iraq were 12.7 percent and 4.3 percent respectively.