New Delhi: Snapping the two-month declining streak, India’s exports rebounded by 7.29 per cent to $37.24 billion in July, while trade deficit widened to an eight-month high of $27.35 billion during the month.
Official data released on Thursday also showed that imports increased by 8.6 per cent year-on-year to $64.59 billion in July 2025 due to increased inbound shipments of crude oil and gold.
Trade deficit widened to $27.35 billion in July, the highest since November last year when the trade gap was $31.77 billion.
During April-July 2025-26, exports increased by 3.07 per cent to $149.2 billion, while imports rose 5.36 per cent to $244.01 billion.
The trade deficit during the first four months of 2025-26 was $94.81 billion.
Briefing media on the data, Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said that despite global economic uncertainties, India’s goods and services exports are doing well. Exports have grown substantially, much higher than the global exports growth, he said. He also said that the export promotion mission will also be announced “very soon”.
The main sectors that pushed the growth in July included engineering (13.75 per cent to $10.42 billion), electronics (34 per cent to $3.76 billion), gems and jewellery (29 per cent to $2.4 billion), pharma (14 per cent to $2.7 billion) and chemicals (7.19 per cent to $2.46 billion).
Petroleum exports, however, dipped by 25 per cent to $4.34 billion due to fall in global oil prices.
At the import front, crude oil imports rose by 7.46 per cent to $15.57 billion. Similarly, gold imports increased by 13.83 per cent year-on-year to $3.93 billion.
The data showed that the estimated value of services export for July was $31.03 billion as compared to $30.60 billion in the same month last year.
The imports were estimated at $15.40 billion in July.
During April-July this fiscal, services exports rose to $128.43 billion as compared to $119.07 billion in April-July 2024.
Moreover, India’s goods exports to the US rose 19.94 per cent to $8.01 billion in July while imports increased 13.78 per cent to about $4.55 billion during the month, according to the Commerce Ministry data.
During April-July, the country’s exports to the US increased 21.64 per cent to $33.53 billion, while imports rose 12.33 per cent to $17.41 billion, the data showed. The US was the largest trading partner of India in the April-July period ($12.56 billion bilateral trade) 2025-26.
India’s exports to America is recording positive growth since April this year.
India and the US are negotiating a bilateral trade agreement. The US team is scheduled to visit India from August 25 for the sixth round of talks for the pact.
China, another major trading partner of India, saw a 27.39 per cent jump in exports from India to $1.34 billion in July and a 19.97 per cent growth in April-July to $5.75 billion.
Imports from the neighbouring country in July rose 5 per cent to $10.91 billion while in during April-July period of 2025-26 by 13.06 per cent to $40.65 billion.
The UAE, the UK, Germany, Bangladesh, Brazil, and Italy were also among the countries, which saw positive growth in exports from India during the month under review.
However, exports to the Netherlands, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Australia, South Africa, and France declined in July.
On the imports front, inbound shipments in July declined from nations, including the UAE, Russia, Indonesia, Qatar, and Taiwan. However, imports rose from Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, and Thailand.