India’s merchandise exports increased by 0.5% to $34.58 billion in September

For the first time in the last three months, India’s merchandise trade export reported a growth of 0.5% in September annually. The outgoing shipments of goods that reported this rise include coffee (74.75%), tobacco (50.9%), handicrafts (48.09%), plastic & linoleum (28.32%), spices (26.66%), rice (24.93%), ready-made garments of All Textiles (17.3%), engineering goods (10.55%), and electronic goods (7.89%).

According to official data released on Wednesday, the trade deficit narrowed to a five-month low.

Merchandise exports increased by 0.5% to $34.58 billion in September from $34.40 billion in the comparable period, and the trade deficit increased to $20.78 billion from $20.08 billion in the comparable period.
Merchandise exports had declined by 9.33% to $34.71 billion in August 2024 from $38.28 billion in the comparable period last year.

Exports in the April-September period in FY2025 increased by 1.2% to $213.22 billion from $211.079 billion, and merchandise imports during this six-month period expanded by 6.166% to $350.66 billion from $330.31 billion in FY2024.

Among exports, trade in cereals other than rice and petroleum products slumped by 74% and 12% in the last six months from a year ago, and that in iron ore plummeted by 27.56% to $1.88 billion.

Goods imports rose to $55.36 billion last month, up from $54.49 billion in the comparable period last year.

According to trade data released by the Commerce Ministry, gold imports decreased by 56.36% to $4.39 billion in September from $10.06 billion a month ago. However, gold imports expanded by 6.9% on an annual basis from $4.11 billion.

In August, gold imports had shown a threefold increase from $3.13 billion.
In the six months from April to September 2024, gold imports increased to $27.09 billion from $22.25 billion in the comparable period last year.

Service exports during the month, meanwhile, rose to $30.61 billion from $28.42 billion a year ago. Imports rose to $16.32 billion during September from $14.58 billion in the comparable period last year.