NEW DELHI: Merchandise exports fell to $35.1 billion in August, a 6% drop from $37.24 billion in July, primarily due to the fall in shipments to the US following the recent tariff hike by President Donald Trump. Exports to the US dropped by 14.4% to $6.86 billion in August from $8.01 billion in July. However, year-on-year, exports to the US increased by 7.5% in August.
Imports, meanwhile, contracted to $61.59 billion in August from $64.59 billion in July. However, on a year-on-year basis, exports rose 6.7% to $35.1 billion in August 2025 from $32.89 billion during the same period in the previous year, while imports fell 10% from $68.53 billion a year earlier. India’s merchandise trade deficit narrowed to $26.49 billion in August from $27.35 billion in July.
Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said Indian exporters had delivered a strong performance amid several geopolitical challenges and trade uncertainties.
“Despite global trade policy uncertainties, India’s exporters have done extremely well,” Barthwal told reporters, highlighting that combined merchandise and services exports rose over 9% to $69.16 billion in August 2025 from $63.25 billion in the same month last year.
Petroleum product exports increased by 6.54% to $4.48 billion in August while imports stood at $13.2 billion. Meanwhile, gold imports declined 56.67% to $5.43 billion in August from $12.55 billion in the year-ago month.
Despite several headwinds, the US continues to be the top destination for Indian exporters, followed by UAE, Netherlands and China.
To further make Indian industries self-reliant, the government is working to reduce dependence on imported goods by targeting 100 items that can be sourced domestically, assured the Commerce Secretary.
“We have categorised imports from three different perspectives. One is how much are raw materials, how much are intermediate products and which are the finished products. Then we have also looked at our capacities of different industries and we are trying to see if our industry has current capacity or through PLI schemes and other kinds of expansion plans of the private sector, they are building up those capacities,” Barthwal said.
The Commerce Ministry, in consultation with other departments, is preparing a list of products across sectors such as chemicals, pharmaceuticals, plastics and kitchenware. The final list is expected by the end of this month or early next month, officials said.