Chennai: Merchandise exports registered a positive growth of 2.55 per cent at $35.20 billion in June against the same month last year. Trade deficit narrowed sequentially to $20.98 billion in the month.

Merchandise exports at $35.20 billion in June was 2.55 per cent higher than $34.32 billion garnered in June 2023. The growth was mainly led by higher demand for engineering goods, electronics, coffee, drugs and pharmaceuticals, organic and inorganic chemicals.

“The positive growth in exports for the second consecutive month is quite encouraging and hopefully the performance will continue despite several challenges the engineering exports sector is facing,” said Arun Kumar Garodia, chairman, EEPC. Engineering exports clocked 10.3 per cent growth in June, while electronic goods grew 17 per cent and coffee 70 per cent.

However, merchandise exports were down 7.7 per cent sequentially compared to $38.13 billion in May 2024.

In the June quarter, merchandise exports were valued at $109.96 billion against $103.89 billion in the year ago period- registering a growth of 5.84 per cent.

Meanwhile, merchandise imports in June 2024 too were up by 4.9 per cent to $56.18 billion against $53.51 billion in June 2023, though it was 9.25 per cent down compared to $61.91 billion in May 2024.

The merchandise trade deficit narrowed to $20.98 billion in June against $22.1 billion in May, but widened against $19.2 billion in June 2023.

“Owing to the slightly faster growth in imports vis-à-vis exports, the merchandise trade deficit expanded to $62.3 billion in Q1 FY2025 from $56.2 billion in the year ago quarter. This is expected to push up India’s Current Account Deficit to 1.4 per cent of GDP from 1 per cent in Q1 FY24 and is a turnaround of the transient surplus of 0.6 per cent of GDP that was seen in Q4 FY24,” said Aditi Nayar, chief economist, ICRA.

Services exports grew to $30.27 billion against $27.79 billion in June 2023 and $30.16 billion in May 2024. Services imports grew to $17.29 billion against $15.61 billion in June 2023 and $17.28 billion in May 2024.

Total exports in the first quarter of FY25 stood at $200.33 billion, registering a positive growth of 8.60 per cent, while total imports were $222.89 billion, up 8.47 per cent. The government expects total exports to touch $800 billion for the entire fiscal, despite the volatile external environment.