July Trade Deficit Widens To $27.35 Billion, Exports Up 7%

India's trade deficit stood at $27.35 billion in July 2025, higher as compared to $24.77 billion in the year-ago period.

The country's merchandise exports have edged up by 7% to $37.24 billion, as against $34.71 billion in the same month last year.

Merchandise imports have also risen, climbing to $64.59 billion. This marks a jump of 8.6% as compared to $59.48 billion in the corresponding period of the previous year.

"Despite uncertain global policy environment, India’s exports – merchandise and services – in July, as well as Q2FY26, have grown substantially...This is much higher than global export growth," Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal told reporters on Thursday.

Major drivers of merchandise exports growth include engineering goods, electronics, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, gems and jewellery, he said.

Per trade data, in the April-July quarter, the US, UAE and Netherlands were the top three export destinations for India, while China, UAE, Russia were the top import sources for India.

Further, the number of Indian products rejected by importing country on the basis of non-tariff grounds, quality, phytosanitary standards have gone down.

"We're seeing uncertain global policy environment due to new tariffs, Section 232 investigations, there's still no clarity on what's happening in the globe. Hence, we'll focus on exports in a manner which is under our control," Barthwal said.

The Commerce Ministry has strategised across 4 pillars -- improving export competitiveness, export promotion, export diversification and import diversification.

Apart from these, the government is working on fast-tracking FTAs and reviews of existing FTAs such as with EFTA, EU, Oman, AITIGA, New Zealand, Peru, Chile.

"There's continued emphasis on 20 countries of significance that make up 60% of India's exports. In addition, we'll expand focus to 50 countries that make up 90% of exports," he said.

Further, the Ministry is also tracking whether there's frontloading of orders that are boosting exports currently. "Data isn't showing any concrete evidence of frontloading of orders so far," an official said