Trade deficit falls 61% in Nov. 2025 to $6.6 billion on surging merchandise exports

India’s trade deficit plummeted by more than 61% in November 2025 to $6.6 billion, due to strong growth in merchandise exports and a fall in merchandise imports.

Notably, India’s exports to the U.S. in November 2025 were higher than in October, as well as in November last year. 

Data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry showed that India’s total exports grew 15.5% to $74 billion in November 2025, while total imports slid 0.6% to $80.6 billion. 

The further disaggregated data showed that India’s merchandise exports grew 19.4% to $38.1 billion in November 2025. Merchandise exports had fallen 11.8% in October 2025.

“In terms of merchandise exports, November 2025 has seen the highest exports out of any November in the last 10 years,” Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal said at a press briefing. “The November data takes care of the worries that arose after the October data.”

The data shows that India’s exports to the U.S. grew 22.6% to $6.98 billion in November 2024 as compared to November 2024. This was also 10.7% higher than in October 2024. The U.S. has been imposing a 50% tariff on imports from India since end-August 2025.  

“For two months after the tariffs were imposed, we faced challenges, where our exports to the U.S. were going down,” Mr. Agrawal said. “But the November data shows our trade relations with the U.S. are going on well, and this is a positive sign.”

According to exporter bodies, Indian exports right now are absorbing most of the impact of the higher tariffs imposed by the U.S. as they feel that this is more viable than losing customers and then trying to regain them. 

Merchandise imports fell 1.9% to $62.7 billion in November 2025. These were also 17.6% lower than in October 2025, when they had surged due to gold imports. Gold imports fell nearly 60% to $4 billion in November 2025 compared to November 2024 and by nearly 73% compared to October 2025.

Services exports grew about 12% in November 2025 to $38.5 billion while services imports increased 8.1% to $18.6 billion.