India’s merchandise exports rose 23 per cent from a year earlier to $44.4 billion in September 2026, the sixth consecutive month of double-digit growth, according to Forbes India and the Shillong Times, which reported the commerce ministry’s data on 16 October. The Shillong Times puts the September 2025 figure at $36.08 billion, so the increase is about $8.3 billion, which is IndiaX24’s own subtraction from the two published numbers.
Electronics led the rise. Electronics exports jumped 70.4 per cent to $5.31 billion, engineering goods rose 20.9 per cent to $12.17 billion, and petroleum products rose 31.9 per cent to $6.22 billion, according to Forbes India. Together those three categories were worth $23.7 billion, more than half of the month’s total exports, a sum and a share that IndiaX24 has calculated from the figures.
Imports rose 8 per cent to $74.61 billion, according to the same reports, so the merchandise trade deficit was $30.21 billion. That is wider than the $26.86 billion of August, according to a report by the India Press Agency, but narrower than the $33 billion of September 2025. The two comparisons point in different directions, and the reports reviewed do not explain the month-to-month widening of about $3.35 billion.
By destination, the United States was the main source of growth: shipments to the US rose 48 per cent to $8.03 billion, according to Forbes India. Exports to China rose 24 per cent, and those to Singapore and Malaysia more than doubled. Shipments to the United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia declined. The reports reviewed do not give the values for the countries other than the US, so the size of the changes elsewhere is not known.
The US growth is worth noting because of the trade dispute between the two countries. IndiaX24 has reported that US tariffs on India rose to 50 per cent and later fell to 18 per cent. The reports reviewed for this article do not link the September figure to the tariff change, so the connection is not made here.
For the first half of the fiscal year, from April to September, merchandise exports grew 18.5 per cent to $259.89 billion, while imports rose 16.3 per cent to $437.53 billion, according to the reports. That leaves a six-month trade deficit of about $177.6 billion, which is IndiaX24’s calculation from the two totals. Imports are growing slower than exports in percentage terms, but because they start from a higher base the gap in dollars is still large.
The detail inside the import figure matters. Gold imports fell 81.3 per cent to $1.8 billion, which held down the import bill, while imports of crude oil and petroleum products rose about 30.8 per cent, and electronics imports rose 51.5 per cent, according to Forbes India. IndiaX24 reports the gold and crude figures in a separate article.
A BusinessToday analysis of 16 October describes India’s export push as facing rising imports and a challenge from China, in a headline about the global realignment of trade. The article was not opened in full, so IndiaX24 does not set out its arguments.
The commerce ministry’s figures are usually revised later, and services trade is reported separately. IndiaX24 will report the October trade data when it is released.
Image: The International Container Transshipment Terminal at Kochi (file photo; a stand-in image). Photo by BgbwikiV4, licensed under CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.