India’s merchandise exports reached a new high for July at $44.24 billion amid strong engineering, petroleum, and electronics shipments. However, the trade deficit expanded as import growth outpaced exports, highlighting ongoing challenges in global demand and logistics costs.
India’s goods exports climbed to a record for July, helped by stronger shipments of engineering products, petroleum items and electronics, even as the country’s trade gap widened on the back of faster import growth. Commerce ministry data released on Thursday showed merchandise exports rose 19.5% from a year earlier to $44.24 billion, up from $37.02 billion in July last year.
For the four months to the end of July, merchandise exports increased 17% to $173.78 billion, while imports rose 19.27% to $292.38 billion. That pushed the merchandise trade deficit out to $118.6 billion from $96.66 billion a year earlier. Including services, total exports in the April-July period reached $316.42 billion, while imports came to $365.85 billion, leaving an overall deficit of $49.43 billion.
The latest figures underline how uneven India’s external trade picture remains. Data from the Reserve Bank of India show the services tally for July is still estimated, with the most recent confirmed reading for June. The government has set a long-term target of taking total exports to $2 trillion by fiscal 2031, split evenly between goods and services, and has urged a sharper focus on small businesses, farm goods, certification and the promotion of “Brand India”.
Among major export categories, engineering goods led the way in the April-July period at $46.38 billion, followed by petroleum products at $30.17 billion and electronics at $21.11 billion. On the import side, crude oil and petroleum products remained the largest item at $78.92 billion, while electronic goods imports rose sharply to $52.82 billion. China stayed India’s biggest source of imports, and the United States remained the largest export market, with shipments to the US rising modestly over the year. The central bank has said weak global demand and high logistics costs are still weighing on merchandise exports, even as services demand remains firm.
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