India’s total trade deficit contracted 9.4% to $20.3 billion in the primary quarter of this monetary yr, pushed by a virtually 11% development in providers exports throughout this era, in keeping with official information.
Data launched by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday confirmed that India’s total exports grew to $210.3 billion in the April-June 2025 quarter, up from $198.5 billion in the primary quarter of the final monetary yr, rising about 6%.
“If exports grow the way they have grown in quarter one of this financial year, then we are going to beat last year’s record exports,” Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal mentioned at a press briefing. “In fact, if you look at this quarter, both merchandise as well as services are in the positive territory and better than what was expected by the [World Trade Organisation] WTO in terms of world trade.”
Merchandise exports sluggish
India’s whole exports had stood at an all-time excessive of $825 billion in the final monetary yr, 2024-25.
Within India’s whole exports, it was providers that drove the expansion. Services exports rose to $98.1 billion in the primary quarter of this monetary yr, up almost 11% from the $88.5 billion seen in the identical quarter of final yr.
Merchandise exports grew simply 2% in the April-June 2025 quarter, to $112.2 billion. However, Mr. Barthwal emphasised that a big a part of this slowdown was attributable to falling petroleum costs, since India’s non-petroleum exports grew 6% throughout this era.
India’s whole imports grew 4.4% in Q1 of this monetary yr to $230.6 billion, with merchandise imports rising 4.2% and providers imports rising 4.9% throughout this era.
Sectoral development
During the quarter, the electronics sector noticed the best development in exports, rising 47.1% to $12.4 billion. This was adopted by the exports of marine merchandise, which grew by greater than 19% to $1.9 billion. Tobacco and tea exports, too, noticed double-digit development of round 19% and 16%, respectively.
On the import facet, the gadgets that witnessed the best development had been sulphur and unroasted iron pyrites (284%), silver (216%), chemical supplies and merchandise (142%), and uncooked and waste cotton (73%).
Top locations
The United States remained the highest export vacation spot for India, with exports to that nation rising 22.1% to $25.5 billion in Q1 of this monetary yr. The different top-five export locations are the United Arab Emirates ($9.04 billion), the Netherlands ($5.65 billion), China ($4.4 billion), and the United Kingdom ($3.3 billion).
.On the opposite hand, China remained the highest supply of India’s imports, with imports from that nation rising 16% to $29.7 billion. This was adopted by the UAE ($16.8 billion), Russia ($16.77 billion), the U.S. ($12.86 billion), and Iraq ($7.26 billion).
