India’s merchandise trade deficit marginally rose to $25.04 billion in December due to the sharp rise in imports. Exports also registered growth during the month despite several global uncertainties and trade challenges. Goods exports rose by 1.87% to $38.51 billion in December from $37.80 billion a year ago, showed data released by the Ministry of Commerce on Thursday. Merchandise imports in December grew by 8.75% to $63.55 billion primarily due to the rising domestic demand for crude oil, electronics and capital goods.
Electronics goods became the major driver of merchandise exports growth during April-December period with exports going up more than 35% to $35.27 billion.
While the overall merchandise export growth during April-December sustained the momentum, there has been some fall in the exports from sectors like gems and jewelleries, petroleum products, rice and handlooms. Both the export and import for the petroleum products have come down with exports coming down by 14.5% and imports by 4.25%. While the merchandise exports managed to sustain the growth momentum, services exports fell by nearly 4% to $35.50 billion in December from $36.97 billion last year. Services imports also declined marginally by 2% to $17.38 billion from $17.80 billion.
During the April-December period of FY26, merchandise exports, excluding petroleum products, grew by 5.5% to $288.16 billion billion.
“On an annual basis, we are on a trajectory where we will be able to cross $850 billion this (financial) year,” said Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal, with merchandise exports touching around $450 billion and services exports touching $400 billion.
Meanwhile, despite the ongoing trade uncertainties, exports to the US have gone up 9.75% in April- December this year. “We are buying a lot of oil from the US these days. So our growth in purchases from the US is also to the tune of 40-50% in the first nine months,” said a source from the Ministry of Commerce. During the period, imports from the US have also gone up by nearly 13% year-on-year.