October goods exports climb 45% to hit record $50 billion

Synopsis

India’s goods exports surged to $49.47 billion in October, marking a 45.06% increase from last year. The trade deficit reached $39.88 billion due to rising imports, particularly for oil and electronics. Petroleum and electronics sectors were significant contributors to this export growth, reflecting increasing global demand. While gold imports tripled month-on-month, they fell significantly year-on-year compared to 2025. Overall, exports, including services, reached a cumulative $568.

New Delhi: India’s goods exports surged 45.06% year-on-year in October to a record $49.47 billion, buoyed by strong shipments of petroleum, electronics, engineering products and gems and jewellery, according to official figures released on Friday.

The trade deficit widened to a one-year high of $39.88 billion, with imports increasing at a faster pace of 16.5%. Oil exports more than doubled, aided by elevated prices, while non-oil exports expanded 33.5% on account of a low base, the data showed.

Trade deficit was on account of higher oil imports, electronics shipments for export production and a surge in gold purchases. The previous monthly high trade deficit was $42.58 billion in October 2025.

Total exports including goods and services increased to $89.9 billion in October from $69.27 billion a year ago, and imports rose to $110.07 billion from $94.42 billion. Cumulative exports of goods and services during April-October increased 16.6% to $568.84 billion.

Live Events

“India recorded its highest-ever monthly goods exports in October 2026… The encouraging part of this growth is that this is not in any particular sector or geography. It is broad-based across countries and regions,” said commerce secretary Rajesh Agrawal.

Forty-three of India’s 50 export destinations posted positive growth last month, compared with October 2025. Sequentially, goods exports rose 11.4% from September this year.

Sequential Spike in Gold Imports

Non-petroleum exports stood at $40.58 billion in October. Agrawal said that the rise in petroleum products exports was due to higher prices and increased demand for refined products from India. He added that a decline in oil prices would impact the value of petroleum product exports, though this could be offset by higher demand.

“I agree that increase in the oil exports, both because of price and because of more export demand for refined products from India, is also having a positive momentum to our growth, but as I pointed out, this growth is not limited to the petroleum products basket,” Agrawal said.

“It is also being seen across many other baskets. So, we are very optimistic that this growth will sustain in the next half… to $1 trillion exports,” he said.

The key drivers of exports were petroleum products, with shipments accelerating 140.21%, and electronics (62.7%), gems & jewellery (40.06%), chemicals (36.2%) and engineering goods (36.01%), according to the data.

Think tank GTRI said that raw-material imports—led by rough diamonds, petroleum and electronic components—saw a sharp increase and a significant share of the dollar jump stemmed from higher global commodity prices passing through into higher export values alongside Western pre-holiday restocking, rather than pure volume expansion.

Agrawal said the value-volume export analysis is a continuous endeavour as there are multiple factors and externalities “not in our control” at play when export values rise.

“In rupee terms, the export growth is much higher. Keeping that in view, we do have a close watch to understand,” he said.

Exports growth was 56.69% in rupee terms in October.

Gold imports in October nearly tripled month-on-month to $5.51 billion from $1.8 billion in September, but fell 62% year-on-year, while silver imports were down 28% year-on-year at $1.9 billion in October.

(You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel)

Is CoreWeave's movement signalling a return of the AI trade?

How India’s INR22.5 lakh crore gold loan boom is hiding a big hole

KYC and KYB: Pidilite's margin keeps finding its way back, though costlier raw materials can knock it off course – Part 2 of 3

Business of Odd Things: The farm that needs no land, freshwater, or fertiliser

KYC and KYB: Inside Pidilite, the company that turned Fevicol into a word for a strong bond – Part 1 of 3

Seoul halts trading, Nifty has its best week since 2021: Money leaving the AI trade – will it land in India?