New Delhi: India’s exports turned positive after four months recording a marginal 0.7 percent increase to USD 41.97 billion in March, while the trade deficit widened to USD 21.54 billion, the government data showed on Tuesday.
Cumulatively, during the 2024-25 financial year (April-March), the country’s exports moved up a tad by 0.08 percent to USD 437.42 billion, whereas imports climbed by 6.62 percent to USD 720.24 billion, leaving a trade deficit of USD 282.82 billion.
The trade deficit in February this year was USD 14.05 billion. In March last year, the difference between exports and imports stood at USD 15.33 billion. During 2023-24, it was USD 241.14 billion.
As regards imports, the growth rose to a four-month high of 11.3 percent year-on-year to USD 63.51 billion in March.
The country’s overall exports of goods and services are estimated to reach a “record” of USD 820.93 billion in 2024-25, an increase of 5.5 percent over 2023-24 when these outbound shipments stood at USD 778.13 billion.
Services exports are estimated at USD 383.51 billion last fiscal against USD 341.06 billion in 2023-24. The imports stood at USD 194.95 billion in 2024-25 against USD 178.31 billion in 2023-24.
Commenting on the data, Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said despite global challenges, the merchandise exports touched the “highest” ever figures in 2024-25.
The overall shipments were also “highest” ever, he told reporters here.
The major drivers of growth include engineering, electronics, pharma, ready-made garments of all textiles, rice, cotton yarn/fabrics, plastics, coffee, spices, tea and tobacco.
In 2024-25, engineering exports touched a maximum of USD 116.67 billion against USD 109.3 billion in 2023-24. It was followed by electronics (USD 38.38 billion against USD 29.12 billion), pharma (USD 30.47 billion against USD 27.85 billion), ready-made garments of all textiles (USD 15.99 billion against USD 14.53 billion), rice (USD 12.47
billion against USD 10.42
billion), cotton yarn/fabrics (USD 12.06 billion against USD 11.68 billion), plastics (USD 8.92 billion against USD 8.09 billion). Sectors which recorded negative growth last fiscal include petroleum products (USD 63.34 billion against USD 84.16 billion), gems and jewellery (USD 29.81 billion against USD 32.17 billion), and chemicals (USD 28.7 billion against USD 29.38 billion).
According to the data, gold imports have increased to USD 58.01 billion last fiscal against USD 45.54 billion. In volume terms, the imports dipped to 757.15 tonnes in 2024-25 against 795.32 tonnes in 2023-24. Other import sectors that recorded positive growth last fiscal include crude oil (USD 185.78 billion against USD 178.73 billion), and electronic goods (USD 98.73 billion against USD 87.86 billion).
Coal, and coke imports, however, dipped to USD 31.09 billion in 2024-25 against USD 38.88 billion in 2023-24.