By Admin 
- New trade agreements with Oman and Britain will also be implemented soon.
Export Update: India’s foreign trade has started the financial year 2026-27 with a record. According to Commerce Ministry data, between April and June 2026, the country’s total exports, i.e. including goods and services, stood at $232.73 billion.
This is the largest figure ever for the first quarter of any financial year. Last year in the same period it was 208.98 billion dollars i.e. an increase of 11.37 percent but during the same period there has been a big jump in imports from China and Russia and the trade deficit has also increased. Meanwhile, the government has made it clear that India is now going to increase energy purchases from America.
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India will buy energy from America
Releasing the figures, the Commerce Secretary said that India is increasing energy imports from America to diversify its energy basket. It is clear that India no longer wants to depend on a few countries for crude oil and gas.
This statement is very important amidst the ongoing tension in West Asia and uncertainty of supply. Negotiations for a bilateral trade deal with America are also going on, hence increasing energy purchases is being considered a big sign in terms of relations. The figures are also indicating the same. Imports from America increased from $13.45 billion to $16.65 billion in this quarter, an increase of about 24 percent.
Good pace even in June
Talking only about June 2026, total exports stood at $73.45 billion, which is 9.48 percent more than $67.09 billion in June last year. Merchandise exports increased from $34.98 billion to $40.41 billion.
Services exports increased from $32.11 billion to $33.03 billion. Merchandise exports in the entire quarter stood at $129.32 billion, 15.92 percent more than last year. Services exports stood at $103.41 billion, an increase of 6.16 percent. However, the June data of services is still an estimate because RBI’s data has come only till May.
The pace of imports is faster than exports
Total imports in April-June 2026 were $270.15 billion, which is 17.55 percent more than last year. Merchandise import increased by about 20 percent to 216.18 billion dollars, that is, the pace of import is faster than export and due to this the total trade deficit in the first quarter comes to about 37.4 billion dollars, which is much more than last year.
The biggest reason for increase in imports was crude oil and petroleum products. Their imports increased from $49.24 billion to $60.62 billion. Import of electronic goods increased from $26.75 billion to $38.46 billion, a jump of about 44 percent. Gold import increased from $7.49 billion to $11.01 billion, i.e. about 47 percent more.
Record imports from China – loss from China alone crosses 32 billion dollars
China is at the top in terms of imports. Imports from China increased from $29.73 billion to $38.04 billion. Whereas India sold only 5.60 billion dollars worth of goods to China, that is, there is a quarterly loss of about 32.4 billion dollars with China alone, which is almost equal to India’s total trade deficit.
Russia is at number two. Imports from Russia increased from $16.77 billion to $25.60 billion, a jump of about 53 percent. A major part of this is crude oil. Russia has now overtaken America in terms of imports. Interestingly, UAE is the only country in the top 10 from where imports have declined from $16.79 billion to $15.03 billion.
America is the biggest market in exports
America remains India’s largest buyer in terms of exports. In April-June 2026, India sold goods worth $25.47 billion to America. After this, exports were worth $7.95 billion to UAE and $6.52 billion to Singapore. The growth of small markets is shocking. Exports to Sri Lanka increased by 124.6 percent to $2.35 billion.
Exports to Singapore more than doubled i.e. increased by 101.2 percent. Australia gained 25.1 percent, Mexico 21.5 percent, Germany 12.2 percent and Britain 11.1 percent. Exports to Tanzania increased from $1.18 billion to $2.91 billion, almost two and a half times.
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There is momentum on the FTA front as well.
The CEPA agreement between India and Oman has come into effect from June 1, 2026. India and Britain’s trade agreement CETA is going to come into effect from 15 July 2026, which means further increase in exports to Britain is expected.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer had come to Delhi between 22 and 24 June to negotiate a trade deal. The third round of talks on CEPA between India and Canada took place in Ottawa in early July. Apart from this, India hosted the 13th joint committee meeting of AITIGA Review with ASEAN in Delhi from 6 to 10 July.
what to look forward to
First quarter figures show that India is off to a record-breaking start on the export front, but rising imports of oil, electronics and gold are pushing the trade deficit higher.
Now the focus will be on how fast the energy purchases from America increase and how much impact the trade agreement with Britain, which is coming into effect from July 15, shows on the figures of the next quarter.