Overview
- India’s trade dashboard, released Wednesday, showed March merchandise exports fell 7.44% to $38.92 billion as imports slid 6.5% to $59.59 billion, narrowing the monthly goods deficit to $20.67 billion.
- Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal said exports to West Asia dropped 57.95% and imports fell 51.64% after conflict-linked limits at the Strait of Hormuz raised freight and insurance costs and curtailed access to Gulf ports.
- For FY2025–26, combined goods and services exports reached a record $860.09 billion, up 4.22%, with services at an estimated $418.31 billion and merchandise at $441.78 billion, while the overall trade gap widened to about $119.30 billion.
- Engineering goods held up with a 1.1% rise in March, but labor‑intensive lines such as gems and jewellery, garments, and some pharma shrank, and March import values fell as crude oil and gold arrivals dropped about 36% and 32%.
- Officials warned logistics strains could linger into April and set out responses that include trade talks in Washington on April 20–22 and free‑trade deals with the UK in May and Oman in June, which they say could help redirect shipments.