India will certainly cross $825 bn exports this fiscal: Piyush Goyal
Bern: The world trade is facing severe geo-political challenges, but India has consistently emerged as a winner in such times, and the country’s exports of goods and services will certainly cross USD 825 billion in 2025-26, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said.
Despite global economic uncertainties due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Israel-Hamas war and the Red Sea crisis, the country’s overall exports touched an all-time high of USD 825 billion against USD 778 billion in 2023-24.
As per estimates of certain multi-lateral bodies, there would be a contraction in global trade, Goyal said.
“The world is going through severe geo-political challenges…So these are challenging times, but India has always emerged (as) a winner in challenging times and we did a record USD 825 billion exports in 2024-25. This year, we hope to do much better,” he said.
When asked if last fiscal’s figures will be crossed, he said: “We will certainly be able to cross that”.
Apex exporters’ body FIEO has projected that the country’s overall goods and services exports are expected to grow by over 21 per cent year-on-year to USD 1 trillion during 2025-26.
Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President S C Ralhan has said the healthy growth may come on account of international buyers seeking to diversify their sourcing in the wake of global economic uncertainties.
In 2025-26, merchandise exports are expected to grow 12 per cent to USD 525-535 billion from USD 437 billion in 2024-25, while services exports are likely to rise by about 20 per cent year-on-year to USD 465-475 billion from USD 387 billion in the last fiscal, according to FIEO.
The major sectors that are expected to show a significant jump in the shipments this fiscal include electronics, engineering, chemicals, textile and clothing, pharma and even the agriculture sector.
Free trade agreements with countries such as the UAE, Australia and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) will also help boost exports in the coming months.
The India-EFTA trade agreement is expected to come into force from October 1 this year.
Goyal also said that FTAs signed during the Congress era were not good and have impacted domestic firms.
They signed FTAs with countries like ASEAN, which are India’s competitors; besides, they were not balanced, he said, adding that India opened more markets for those countries and “we did not get” good deals in return. On finished goods, he said, India removed the duties but import taxes on raw materials created inverted duty issues and that hurt “us a lot”, he said. with pti inputs
