Merchandise Trade Deficit Narrows to $18.78 Billion in June
India's trade deficit stood at $18.78 billion in June 2025 against $20.84 billion in June 2024 and $21.88 billion in May 2025.
Chennai: Merchandise trade deficit narrowed down, both annually and sequentially to $18.78 billion in June. Exports remained flat against the same month last year, while imports declined 3.7 per cent in the month.
India's trade deficit stood at $18.78 billion in June 2025 against $20.84 billion in June 2024 and $21.88 billion in May 2025.
Merchandise exports in June were flat at $35.14 billion against $35.16 billion in the same month last year. On the import side, the country saw a 3.71 per cent decline to $53.92 billion led by a 25 per cent decline in gold offtake.
For the April–June quarter of the financial year 2025–26, exports rose 1.92 per cent to $112.17 billion, while imports increased 4.24 per cent to $179.44 billion, increasing the deficit to $67.26 billion as compared to $62.10 billion during the year-ago quarter.
Exports of electronic goods registered 46.93 per cent, tea 32.64 per cent and jute 23.4 per cent growth. Other major categories, including drugs and pharmaceuticals, organic and inorganic chemicals, engineering goods and readymade garments posted low single digit growth while gems and jewellery posted 14.25 per cent decline.
Gold imports declined by 25.73 per cent, pulses 74.96 per cent, coal, coke and briquettes 19.13 per cent, pearls, precious and semi-precious stones 18.11 per cent, and project goods 16.29 per cent.
Services export for June is estimated to have risen to $32.84 billion and services imports to $17.58 billion, leading to a surplus of $15.26 billion. The services trade surplus for April-June quarter was $46.95 billion against $39.68 billion in the year-ago quarter.
India’s total exports of merchandise and services for June 2025 touched $67.98 billion, registering a growth of 6.5 per cent.
"Although the weakness in India’s headline merchandise exports persisted in June 2025, a relatively sharper dip in non-oil imports led to the trade deficit compressing considerably to $18.8 billion in the month from an average of $24 billion in April-May 2025 and $20.8 billion in June 2024. Given this, and the robust growth in net services earnings, we now expect India’s current account deficit to print at a comfortable 0.7 per cent of GDP in Q1 FY2026, a tad lower than the 0.9 per cent seen in Q1 FY2025." said Aditi Nayar, Chief Economist, ICRA.
