More than doubling of exports to Singapore,Tanzania and Sri Lanka compensated for drop in shipments to West Asia along with a lower base helped India’s exports grow at a five month high of 13.7% in April to $ 43.5 billion. It is the highest ever exports recorded in the month of April.
Imports in April grew 10% on year to $ 71.9 billion which brought down the trade deficit to $ 28.3 billion, lowest in three months.
Due to war India’s exports to West Asia fell 28% to $ 4.16 billion in April but there has been good growth in Singapore of 179%, Tanzania 157%, Sri Lanka 214%, Bangladesh 64%, Hong Kong 90%, Malaysia 59%, Australia 55% and Vietnam 42%, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal told reporters.
Changing Trade Destinations
Singapore pushed aside the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to become the second biggest buyer of Indian goods following the US. In addition there has been a positive trajectory in the US, China, Germany, Japan, Indonesia, Korea which has been maintained. The fall in exports to West Asia in April was lower than 57.9% in March. Along with the exports, the imports from West Asia have also come down.
Rising Oil Prices
Other help came from higher global petroleum product prices. In April petroleum product exports grew 34.66% to $ 9.6 billion. The turnaround in petroleum product exports started in March as war led to higher crude prices. Prior to the war the petroleum exports were contracting in April-February.
Other than petroleum products, exports of electronics grew 40.3% to $ 5.1 billion, engineering goods exports were up 8.76% to $ 10.3 billion, pharma exports were up 7.1% to $ 2.6 billion, chemicals expanded 7.3% to $ 2.4 billion. Other products that showed goods growth were meat, dairy, marine products and handicraft.
Petroleum products imports fell 10% to $ 18.6 billion despite increase in prices which shows sharp fall in volumes. Just before the war started the crude oil averaged $ 70 a barrel but after the war it has stayed in the vicinity of $ 100 a barrel.
Gold imports during April rose 81.69 % to $ 5.62 billion and silver exports were up 157.16 % to $ 411 million. To curb gold imports the government has raised duties on the yellow metal to 15% from 6%. Duties on silver have also gone up.
“I think with the higher import duty on gold and silver, there will definitely be some impact in terms of lower imports of gold and silver in the year. We need to wait and watch how much it will be,” Agrawal said.
Services exports for April are estimated at $ 37.24 billion, up 13.3% on year. The imports of services were $ 16.66 billion, compared with $ 16.91 billion in April 2025.
When asked about the impact of the depreciating rupee of exports, the secretary said “till now it has been showing a positive trajectory and I think the early signs from May also look positive”. The Indian rupee has depreciated over 6 per cent so far this year. It closed at 95.86 (provisional) against the US dollar on Friday.
Agrawal also said that the ministry will work towards pushing the overall exports to $ 1 trillion in 2026-27. The Rs 25,060 crore export promotion mission and free trade agreements will help push the shipments this year.