The West Asia crisis did have an impact on India’s exports to the region. File.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Despite significant headwinds to trade due to the West Asia crisis, the value of India’s merchandise exports grew nearly 14% in April 2026 to $43.6 billion, official data released on Friday (May 15, 2026) showed.
This performance was due in part to the overall rise in prices as well as to the efforts by Indian exporters to diversify their markets, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal said on Friday (May 15, 2026). The overall trade deficit, counting merchandise and services, fell 30% in April 2026 to $7.8 billion.
“The positive growth in value can have some contribution from prices because prices of many things are going up,” Mr. Agrawal said at a press briefing. “It is also to the credit of our industry which has been able to maintain the supply chains and look at new markets and diversify their exports.”
Diversified markets
He added that growth in exports in April 2026 has come from multiple countries where such high growth rates have not been seen in the past, such as Tanzania.
Merchandise exports to Tanzania grew 158% in April 2026 to $1.2 billion, while exports to several other historically smaller export destinations countries such as Sri Lanka (215%), Singapore (179%), Bangladesh (64%), and Vietnam (53%) also saw relatively strong growth.
The West Asia crisis did have an impact on India’s exports to the region, however.
West Asia impact
“Exports to West Asia dived in March and declined in April as well, but now the decline is only 28%,” Mr. Agrawal noted. “Our export to West Asia has been $4.16 billion as compared to $5.78 billion in April 2025.”
“On imports from West Asia, we see there has been a significant fall in merchandise imports, which has reduced from $15.3 billion in April last year to $10.5 billion, down 31.6%, for reasons that are well known,” he added.
The data shows that exports to the UAE, one of India’s biggest export destinations, fell 36.4% in April 2026 to about $2.2 billion.
Notably, India’s exports to the U.S. also grew during this period, albeit by a relatively smaller 1.1% to about $8.5 billion in April 2026.
Trade balance
While India’s merchandise exports stood at $43.6 billion in April 2026, its merchandise imports stood at $71.9 billion, up 10% over its level in April last year. The merchandise trade deficit, therefore, stood at $28.4 billion in April 2026, up from $27.1 billion in April last year.
On the services front, India’s exports in April 2026 grew 13.4% to $37.2 billion while imports fell 1.5% to $16.7 billion.
As a result, the overall trade deficit stood at $7.8 billion in April 2026 down from $11.2 billion in April last year.
Published – May 15, 2026 05:08 pm IST
