India’s overall exports, merchandise and services combined, in May were reported at $71.12 billion, marking a 2.77% rise on a yearly basis, data from the Union Commerce Ministry showed on Monday. The total exports in May 2024 were pegged at $69.20 billion.
Exports of merchandise goods declined from $39.59 billion to $38.73 billion, and exports of services rose from $29.61 billion to $32.39 billion during May 2025. India imported goods and services worth $77.75 billion, down from $78.55 billion in the same month last year.
The trade deficit in May narrowed to $6.62 billion from $9.35 billion the same month last year. So far in 2025-26, April-May, India’s total exports now stood at around $142.43 billion, up 5.75% year-on-year. The country’s imports too increased year-on-year in April-May, by 6.52% as per data published today.
Overall imports, both merchandise and services combined, during April-May increased from $149.81 billion to$157.57 billion. April-May combined trade deficit, meaning the difference between the exports and the imports was at $17.14 billion, compared with $15.12 billion in same period of last fiscal.
India’s total exports have touched an all-time high of $824.9 billion in the recently-concluded financial year 2024-25. This marks a yearly growth of 6.01% over $778.1 billion exports in 2023-24, setting a new annual milestone.
What Else?
The 2024-25 exports exceeded the initial anticipation of $800 billion. In 2024-25, services exports continued to drive the growth momentum, reaching a historic high of $387.5 billion, up 13.6% from $341.1 billion in the previous year.
In 2024-25, merchandise exports stood at $437.42 billion in 2024-25, with a marginal increase. India’s total trade deficit (merchandise and services) for the fiscal year 2024-25 widened to $94.26 billion, from $78.1 billion in 2023-24.
Among various steps the government took was to launch a Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme in varied sectors, including electronic goods, to make Indian manufacturers globally competitive, attract investments, enhance exports, integrate India into the global supply chain and reduce dependency on imports. These seemed to have reaped dividends for rising exports.
Adding an interesting layer to the market’s expectations, a prediction contract with 27 active traders on the platform Probo a popular opinion trading platform – currently assigns a 45% probability to India achieving cumulative exports of $950 billion or more in FY 2025-26.
