India's merchandise trade deficit widened to $22.99 billion in January 2025 as compared to $21.94 billion in December as exports fell.
On a year-on-year basis, the trade deficit in goods was again wider in January versus the revised figure of $16.56 billion in the same month of the last fiscal year.
While merchandise exports fell 2.4 percent on-year in January, goods imports increased 10.3 percent, according to provisional data released by commerce ministry on February 17.
Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal while briefing the media said, "despite the tariff retaliation happening across the world, Indian exports have done well in January. Major drivers of exports are electronic goods, drugs and pharmaceuticals. Rice shipments have also jumped due to removal of embargo."
Barthwal added that one can witness green shoots in exports of gems and jewellery products.
While drugs and Pharmaceuticals exports increased by 21.46 percent on-year in January 2025, outbound shipments of gems and jewellery rose 15.95 percent.
Exports of rice too jumped by 44.61 percent to $1.37 billion during the previous month.
On a cumulative basis, merchandise exports during April-January in the current fiscal has grown 1.2 percent to $358.91 billion on-year, while goods imports increased at a faster rate of 7.4 percent to $601.90 billion.
Therefore, merchandise trade deficit in April-January for 2024-25 came in at $242.99 billion, higher than 206.29 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal year.
For both services and goods, India’s total exports for January 2025 is estimated at $74.97 billion, registering a growth of 9.72 percent on-year, while overall imports are seen at $77.64 billion, an increase of 12.98 percent.
Overall exports for the April-January period in 2024-25 is estimated at $682.59 billion, up 7.21 percent, whereas overall imports are seen increasing 8.96 percent to $770.06 billion.
Therefore, the overall trade deficit (merchandise and services) is seen lower versus the gap in goods alone at $2.67 billion for January 2025 and at $87.47 billion during the first ten months of FY25.
This is primarily on account of a healthy growth in India's services exports, which is estimated to increase by 14.5 percent on-year during April-January of the current fiscal.
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