‘Expecting India’s 2025-26 overall exports to touch $850 billion’: Commerce Secretary

NEW DELHI: India is on track to cross $850 billion in total exports for the current financial year (FY 2025-26), driven by steady performance in both merchandise and services despite a challenging global economic climate.

Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal told reporters on Thursday that he is confident of India’s trade trajectory. “We are going to cross $850 billion of export in the current financial year. There has been a positive movement in our export growth. We have maintained the positive territory.”

The latest trade data for the April-December period underscores this optimistic outlook. For the first nine months of the fiscal year, India’s overall exports (Merchandise + Services) reached $634.26 billion, a significant jump from the $607.93 billion recorded during the same period last year — marking a growth of 4.33 per cent.

India’s exports show strong resilience in Apr–Dec FY26, reaching ~$634 bn, up ~4.3% YoY despite global headwinds. On track to cross $850 bn this year.#IndiaExports #GlobalTrade @DoC_GoI @PIB_India @PiyushGoyalOffc pic.twitter.com/0d7ysgMENy

— Rajesh Agrawal (@RajeshAgrawal94) January 15, 2026

In December 2025 specifically, merchandise exports showed a resilient uptick with $38.51 billion in December 2025 as compared to $37.80 billion in December 2024, a growth of 1.86 per cent. “There has been a positive movement in our export growth. We have maintained the positive territory”, Agrawal noted.

While exports are climbing, imports have also seen an upward trend, leading to a widening of the trade deficit, which stood at $96.58 billion for the April-December period, compared to $88.43 billion last year. In exports, the services sector remained the strongest performer with a growth rate of 6.46 per cent and merchandise managed a steady 2.44 per cent growth.

India’s total exports had touched an all-time high of $824.9 billion in financial year 2024-25. This marked a yearly growth of 6.01 per cent over $778.1 billion exports in 2023-24, setting a new annual milestone. The 2024-25 exports exceeded the initial anticipation of $800 billion. (ANI)