New Delhi, Nov 18 (IANS) India’s services exports ($38.5 billion) outpaced goods exports ($34.4 billion) by 11 per cent in October, bouncing back after a few months of weakness, a report said on Tuesday.

The export of the service sector gained an average of $37.5 billion in the September-October period against $33 billion in the first eight months of the year. At the same time, services trade surplus was at an all-time high of $20 billion during the month, HSBC Global Investment Research said in its report.

As expected, gold imports surged 58 per cent year-on-year (YoY) during the month under review. In the Diwali month, the gold import bill rose to $14.7 billion, jumped over 5 billion from the previous month.

Meanwhile, core imports (non-oil, non-gold) contracted on a sequential basis following a sharp rise last month as select categories like electronics, machinery, and machine tools grew quickly.

Electronic imports, in particular, may have risen on the back of GST rate cuts, the report said.

India’s goods trade deficit widened to $41.7 billion during the month, an all-time high, from $32.2 billion in September. The report anticipated that the trade deficit would widen due to festive demand.

After seasonally adjusting, the trade deficit stood at $33.4 billion, compared to $31.1 billion in September. The report further highlighted that the exports to the US contracted YoY terms for a second month in a row (-12 per cent in September, and -8.6 per cent in October).

Exports to non-US destinations have also lost momentum after rising 11 per cent YoY in September, in line with the trends observed in the first half of 2025 (H1 2025).

Some of this could reflect the heightened competition of selling to non-US destinations, as many countries try to diversify exports post-tariff announcements.

–IANS

aps/na