Higher realisations on petroleum products and growth in engineering and electronics goods shipments helped India’s merchandise exports expand 19.6% year-on-year to $44.24 billion in July. This is the fastest export growth since June 2022, and it came on a strong base (13.2%).
In June 2022 exports had grown 30.1%, but was aided by a very low base due to the peak of the Covid pandemic in June 2021.
While high crude oil prices led to a 67.64% increase in petroleum exports to $ 6.91 billion in July, they also weighed on imports. Imports during the month increased 17.52% to $ 76.22 billion with oil imports growing 17.64% to $ 18.31 billion. The trade deficit in July stood at $31.98 billion, which was the highest since January ($34.8 billion).
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Even after taking out petroleum product exports from total exports in July, exports are up 13.57% year-on-year to $37.32 billion. Given that supply disruptions caused by the West Asia crisis were yet to be fully removed, the export surge looked impressive and reflected agile market diversification, analysts feel. They, however, noted that items of low value addition like petroleum products and electronics primarily drove shipments.
July saw growth return to the US market with an expansion of shipments by 12.9% year-on-year to 9,02 billion. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) market also grew 10.15% to $ 3.2 billion after contracting since the onset of the war.
The engineering sector, which accounts for around 27% of total exports, grew 17.7% to $ 12.2 billion while electronics goods shipments increased 57.4% to $ 5.91 billion.
July also saw growth returning to the West Asian markets despite the ongoing war. In March exports to West Asia had declined 56% to $ 2.62 billion but recovered in May and expanded in June. In July exports to the region grew 8.6% to $ 5.70 billion.
The rebound in West Asia is due to alternate arrangements and the use of ports outside the conflict zone to get goods to the region after the disruption of shipping routes, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal said.
Exports to Singapore grew 83.70% to $1.6 billion, while exports to China were up 64.57% to $2.19 billion. Other high growth markets were South Africa (50.11%), Tanzania (78.88%), Malaysia (73.03%), Japan (65.32 %) and Sri Lanka (72.51%).
Overall exports in July, including services, were up 13.31% to $ 80.14 billion while imports were up 15.82% to $ 95.16 billion. In April-July merchandise exports were up 17.04% to $ 173.78 billion while imports grew 19.27% to $ 292.38 billion.
Overall exports in the first four months of 2026-27 were up 13.16% to $ 316.42 billion while imports grew 17.28% to $365.85 billion.
“Sustaining the present export momentum would require continued policy support, particularly as geopolitical tensions, shipping disruptions, freight volatility and evolving trade policies remain significant risks to global commerce,” said S.C. Ralhan, President of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations.
TOPICSECONOMYexportsThis article was first uploaded on August thirteen, twenty twenty-six, at two minutes past nine in the night. © IE Online Media Services (P) Ltd