(HT)
India on Tuesday reported record exports of $821 billion in 2024-25 on the back of healthy merchandise shipments and robust services exports despite global headwinds although the government’s optimism about this year’s prospects depend on ambitious early harvest bilateral free trade deals with at least two the US and the European Union. The first, especially is crucial for it will help India dodge the reciprocal tariff levied by the US. President Donald Trump announced the 26% tariff on India, but then suspended all reciprocal tariffs for 90 days. The current incremental tariff on Indian goods exported to the US is 10%.
Announcing provisional trade data for the month of March and the full FY25, commerce secretary Sunil Barthwal said that services data for the month of March is a “conservative” estimate, and India’s actual exports in FY25 may exceed $821 billion.
According to the data, India’s overall exports (merchandise and services combined) in FY25 were $820.93 billion as compared to $778.13 billion in FY24, registering 5.5% growth. Overall imports in FY25 saw 6.85% growth to $915.19 billion against $856.52 billion in FY24, leading to a higher trade deficit. The trade deficit rose from $78.39 billion in FY24 to $94.26 billion in FY25,a jump in excess of 20%.
Data showed that India’s overall exports were led by services in FY25 as the growth in merchandise shipments almost remained flat at $437.42 billion compared to $437.07 billion in FY24. Goods imports, however, jumped by 6.2% to $720.24 billion in FY25 against $678.21 billion in FY24.
Services were the bright spot with exports exceeding imports. India exported services worth $383.51 billion in FY25 as compared to $341.06 in FY24, a 12.45% jump. Imports, however, saw a 9.33% annualised increase to $194.95 billion in FY25 from $178.31 billion in FY24.
Commerce ministry officials said trade for the month of March this year largely remained unaffected . While merchandise export growth in March remained almost flat (it grew marginally by 0.67% on an annualised basis) to $41.97 billion, imports rose by 11.36% to $63.51 billion in the month. The trade deficit in March stood at $21.54 billion, according to the commerce ministry’s data released on Tuesday.
Major growth drivers in merchandise exports included engineering goods, electronics items, pharmaceuticals, ready-made garments, and agricultural commodities such as rice, cotton coffee, spices, tea and tobacco. “India has done extremely well,” Barthwal said citing the government’s strategy of having specific focus on 20 countries, six merchandise sectors and six services sector.
