Data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on August 13, 2026, showed India’s exports gaining momentum, despite the ongoing war in West Asia, driven in particular by the growth in export of merchandise (goods).

In July 2026, India exported $44.2 billion worth of goods, up nearly 20% compared to July 2025. Though the growth in the goods exports was encouraging, India’s merchandise trade deficit widened from nearly $28 billion in July 2025 to $32 billion in July 2026 due to higher growth in imports. Analysis showed that the growth in exports was largely driven by an increase in the export of petroleum products, whose prices have gone up since the U.S. launched its attack on Iran in the last week of February.

India exported $7.26 billion more merchandise in July 2026 than it did in July 2025. Petroleum products accounted for nearly $2.8 billion of that increase (39%). Electronics added another $2.16 billion (30%), while engineering goods contributed $1.84 billion (25%). The growth in petroleum products in April-July 2026 compared with the same period in 2025 was 42.6%. India exported $30 billion worth of petroleum products in April-July this year as against $21 billion in the same period last year.

Export of engineering goods grew by 18.2% from $39.2 billion to $46.4 billion, while electronic goods’ exports grew by 30.7% from $16.2 billion to $21.2 billion. The chart shows the five commodity groups that accounted for the highest value of merchandise exports from April to July this year.

A few other sectors also reported strong growth. Marine product exports rose nearly 18%. Meat, dairy and poultry products increased 41%, while handicrafts grew 16%.

The share of the top six commodity groups in India’s total merchandise export shows that the majority of fluctuations came from petroleum products, hugely influencing the value of goods exported by the country. The chart below shows the share (%) of the six biggest commodity groups in India’s total merchandise exports. The data for 2026-27 is only for the April-July period.

The share of engineering goods and drugs and pharmaceuticals have largely remained the same while the share of electronic goods nearly doubled in April-July 2026.

Despite the impact due to tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump, the country remained India’s largest market for merchandise export. The U.S. accounted for about a fifth of India’s exports between April and July 2026-27, almost unchanged from its share in the previous two financial years. The chart below shows the share (%) of major countries in India’s total merchandise exports. Countries that account for at least 2.5% of total exports are shown.

Singapore’s share has risen more noticeably from 2.7% in 2024-25 to 4.7% in the first four months of 2026-27.

China’s share, which saw an increase from 3.3% to 4.4% between 2024-25 and 2025-26, has remained around the same level as of the April-July period in 2026-27. The UAE’s share in India’s exports came down from 8.5% to 6.5% in the same period due to the West Asia crisis. The share of other countries shown in the chart above increased marginally.

A country-wise breakdown showed that the highest growth came from countries such as South Africa, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Kenya. The chart below shows the top five countries in the ‘Others’ category (mentioned in the above chart) that saw the highest growth in the value of merchandise exports

Tanzania nearly doubled its share in India’s total goods exports from 1.1% to 2%. However, an analysis of commodity groups showed that the majority of the increase in export to these countries came from refined petroleum products.

India also showed promising increase in exports to countries such as Vietnam ($2.6 billion) and Taiwan ($0.8 billion) in April-July 2026, which were not driven primarily by petroleum goods. An easing of the West Asia crisis will reveal the true extent to which India is diversifying its exports.

Data for the charts were sourced from Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Gandla Sneha is interning with The Hindu’s Data team