When oil prices jump, an airline in Hyderabad, a fertilizer producer, a delivery rider, and the Union government encounter the shock through different contracts. Import payments rise in foreign currency; domestic prices depend on taxes, subsidies, margins, and exchange rates; the rupee responds to trade and finance; services exports and remittances may offset part of the pressure. ‘India imports oil’ is the opening fact, not the completed analysis. The external economy is a set of linked flows and balance sheets.

India’s scale makes it a major market, services exporter, remittance recipient, commodity importer, borrower, and destination for investment. Global rates, wars, shipping disruptions, technology demand, and investor risk appetite can reach domestic inflation and finance quickly. External vulnerability cannot be read from openness alone. The composition of exports, essential imports, currency denomination, maturity, reserves, and domestic policy credibility determines how a shock travels.

RBI’s balance-of-payments, external debt, reserves, software-services, and exchange-rate data provide the accounting core. The Economic Survey interprets trade and resilience; national accounts connect external demand to domestic output; budget documents reveal taxes, subsidies, and fiscal exposure. Keep customs merchandise data, balance-of-payments trade data, and national-accounts net exports distinct. Timing, valuation, and coverage differ.