NEW DELHI: The sub-prime crisis in US has taken a toll on the business sentiments between two nations, with the confidence index falling, although marginally, by two points in 2007.The Indo-US Business Confidence Index, carried out by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce, has dipped to 217 at the end of 2007, compared to 219 in 2006 and the decline was attributed to deceleration in the growth of export of services from India due to appreciation of rupee and slowdown in the US economy, according to latest index.

The Indo-American Chamber of Commerce had appointed ICRA Management Consulting Services to design and develop a Business Confidence Index that reflected Indo-US economic and business relations and captures the sentiments and perceptions of the business community.Significantly, the merchandise trade (both imports and exports) from/to the US registered an increase with imports from the US going up by 35.49 per cent and exports up by 11.5 per cent in 2007 over the previous year.

However, export of services by the Indian MNCs to the US registered a fall of 12.3 per cent in value terms and has been the key contributor behind the marginal dip of the index."Significant appreciation of the rupee vis-a-vis greenback made services exports from India less competitive," IACC said in the survey.