India’s overall trade deficit contracted 9.4% in the first quarter of this financial year to $20.3 billion on the back of a nearly 11% growth in services exports during this period, according to official data.
Data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry showed that India’s overall exports increased to $210.3 billion in the April-June 2025 quarter, up from $198.5 billion in the first quarter of the last financial year, a growth of about 6%.
“If exports grow the way they have grown in quarter one of this financial year, then we are going to beat last year’s record exports,” Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said at a press briefing. “In fact, if you look at this quarter, both merchandise as well as services are in the positive territory and better than what was expected by the WTO in terms of world trade.”
India’s total exports had stood at an all-time high of $825 billion in the full year 2024-25.
Within the total exports, India’s services exports drove the growth. Services exports rose to $98.1 billion in the first quarter of this financial year, up nearly 11% from the $88.5 billion seen in the same quarter of 2024-25.
Merchandise exports, however, grew 2% in the April-June 2025 quarter to $112.2 billion. However, Mr. Barthwal emphasised that a large part of this slowdown was due to falling petroleum prices, since India’s non-petroleum exports grew 6% during this period.
India’s total imports grew 4.4% in Q1 of this financial year to $230.6 billion, with merchandise imports growing 4.2% and services imports growing 4.9% during this period.