New Delhi: Snapping the two-month declining streak, India’s exports rebounded by 7.29 per cent to $37.24 billion in July, while trade deficit widened to an eight-month high of $27.35 billion during the month. Official data released on Thursday also showed that imports increased by 8.6 per cent year-on-year to $64.59 billion in July 2025 due to increased inbound shipments of crude oil and gold. Trade deficit widened to $27.35 billion in July, the highest since November last year when the trade gap was $31.77 billion.

During April-July 2025-26, exports increased by 3.07 per cent to $149.2 billion, while imports rose 5.36 per cent to $244.01 billion. The trade deficit during the first four months of 2025-26 was $94.81 billion. Briefing media on the data, Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said that despite global economic uncertainties, India’s goods and services exports are doing well. Exports have grown substantially, much higher than the global exports growth, he said. He also said that the export promotion mission will also be announced ‘very soon’.

The main sectors that pushed the growth in July included engineering (13.75 per cent to $10.42 billion), electronics (34 per cent to $3.76 billion), gems and jewellery (29 per cent to $2.4 billion), pharma (14 per cent to $2.7 billion) and chemicals (7.19 per cent to $2.46 billion). Petroleum exports, however, dipped by 25 per cent to $4.34 billion due to fall in global oil prices. At the import front, crude oil imports rose by 7.46 per cent to $15.57 billion. Similarly, gold imports increased by 13.83 per cent year-on-year to $3.93 billion. The data showed that the estimated value of services export for July was $31.03 billion as compared to $30.60 billion in the same month last year. The imports were estimated at $15.40 billion in July.