The export sector in India has shown great resilience during July 2024, and total exports are likely to grow by 2.81 percent vis-à-vis the same month last year. The cumulative value for merchandise exports for the months of April to July 2024 were USD 144.12 billion, an increase of 4.15 percent over USD 138.39 billion for the corresponding months of the previous year.

Key sectors like electronic goods, engineering goods, drugs and pharma, and meat, dairy, and poultry products recorded significant growth. Much to the front, exports of electronic goods jumped to USD 2.81 billion in July 2024 from USD 2.04 billion a year ago, thus growing by 37.31 per cent. Engineering goods exported grew by 3.66 per cent; drugs and pharmaceuticals increased by 8.36 per cent. Meat, dairy, and poultry products exports surged by 56.18 per cent.

On the other hand, India’s imports rose to total USD 72.03 bln for July 2024, representing an increase of 7.14% from USD 67.23 bln in July 2023. In a rise in imports that was accompanied by a trade deficit of USD 9.61 bln for July 2024 compared to USD 6.52 bln in July 2023.

Based on these statistics, the overall trade balance for April-July 2024 would be an expanded deficit at USD 261.47 bln in exports and USD 292.64 bln in imports. The merchandise trade deficit for this period was USD 85.58 bln as opposed to the USD 75.15 bln previous year.

It is projected that exports of services will increase by 9.89% for the April to July period of 2024, reaching USD 117.35 billion. The import value of services rose from USD 59.19 billion a year ago to USD 62.95 billion. This resulted in a services trade surplus of USD 54.40 billion.

This survey underlines the rising importance of non-petroleum and non-gems & jewellery sectors; exports in these categories increased 5.69 percent in July 2024. On the other side, imports of these categories increased. This is part of the larger trend of rising consumption and production needs.

The overall data presents an active trade environment where substantial growth in select export sectors was tempered by rising import costs and an expanding trade deficit.