Key Points

This reflects the resilience of the export sector amid rising global geopolitical tensions and trade disruptions.

FIEO President S.C. Ralhan welcomed the growth, highlighting the strong performance of the services sector, which played a key role in offsetting the modest growth in merchandise exports.

Merchandise exports for FY 2024-25 rose slightly by 0.08 per cent to $437.42 billion, while imports increased by 6.62 per cent to $720.24 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of $282.82 billion.

In March 2025 alone, exports grew 0.7 per cent year-on-year to $41.97 billion, with imports rising 11.3 per cent to $63.51 billion -- leading to a monthly trade deficit of $21.54 billion.

Ralhan called for strategic support to sustain export momentum, including enhancing export competitiveness, diversifying products and markets, addressing logistics and infrastructure gaps and easing regulatory burdens and improving access to affordable credit.

He reaffirmed FIEO's commitment to working closely with the government and industry to ensure sustained growth in the face of global challenges.

According to data compiled by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, as compared to the previous month, exports clocked a 13.75 per cent increase in March while imports went up by 24.6 per cent.

The figures come amid the chaos in global markets triggered by the hike in US tariffs. India is in talks with the US for a bilateral trade agreement while the US has agreed to pause the duty hike for a period of 90 days.

The first phase of the bilateral trade agreement between India and the US is likely to be concluded within the tariff-pause period of 90 days fixed by the Donald Trump administration, according to official sources.

- IANS