Services exports reduce Indias commerce deficit by 9.4% in Q1

Data launched by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday confirmed that India’s general exports grew to $210.3 billion within the April-June 2025 quarter, up from $198.5 billion within the first quarter of the final monetary yr, rising about 6%. 

“If exports develop the way in which they’ve grown in quarter one in every of this monetary yr, then we’re going to beat final yr’s file exports,” Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal mentioned at a press briefing. “In truth, in the event you take a look at this quarter, each merchandise in addition to companies are within the constructive territory and higher than what was anticipated by the [World Trade Organisation] WTO when it comes to world commerce.”

Merchandise exports gradual

India’s whole exports had stood at an all-time excessive of $825 billion within the final monetary yr, 2024-25.

Within India’s whole exports, it was companies that drove the expansion. Services exports rose to $98.1 billion within the first quarter of this monetary yr, up almost 11% from the $88.5 billion seen in the identical quarter of final yr. 

Merchandise exports grew simply 2% within the April-June 2025 quarter, to $112.2 billion. However, Mr. Barthwal emphasised that a big a part of this slowdown was attributable to falling petroleum costs, since India’s non-petroleum exports grew 6% throughout this era. 

India’s whole imports grew 4.4% in Q1 of this monetary yr to $230.6 billion, with merchandise imports rising 4.2% and companies imports rising 4.9% throughout this era. 

Sectoral progress

During the quarter, the electronics sector noticed the best progress in exports, rising 47.1% to $12.4 billion. This was adopted by the exports of marine merchandise, which grew by greater than 19% to $1.9 billion. Tobacco and tea exports, too, noticed double-digit progress of round 19% and 16%, respectively. 

On the import aspect, the gadgets that witnessed the best progress have been sulphur and unroasted iron pyrites (284%), silver (216%), chemical supplies and merchandise (142%), and uncooked and waste cotton (73%).

Top locations

The United States remained the highest export vacation spot for India, with exports to that nation rising 22.1% to $25.5 billion in Q1 of this monetary yr. The different top-five export locations are the United Arab Emirates ($9.04 billion), the Netherlands ($5.65 billion), China ($4.4 billion), and the United Kingdom ($3.3 billion).

.On the opposite hand, China remained the highest supply of India’s imports, with imports from that nation rising 16% to $29.7 billion. This was adopted by the UAE ($16.8 billion), Russia ($16.77 billion), the U.S. ($12.86 billion), and Iraq ($7.26 billion).