New Delhi, Dec 15 (IANS) India’s merchandise trade deficit registered a sharp decline to $24.53 billion in November from $41.68 billion in October despite the uncertainties in the global market triggered by the US tariff turmoil, data released by the Commerce Ministry on Monday showed.

Merchandise exports for November 2025 stood at $38.13 billion, while imports were estimated at $62.66 billion. Services exports grew from $32.11 billion to $35.86 billion, while imports rose slightly to $17.96 billion during November compared to $17.25 billion in the same month of the previous year.

Overall exports in November stood at $73.99 billion, to register a growth over the corresponding figure of $64.05 billion in the same month of the previous year. Imports slipped marginally to $80.63 billion in the reported month over $81.11 billion in November 2024.

Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agarwal attributed the reduction in imports as driven by gold, oil and coal shipments.

“Gold imports have declined in November by about 60 per cent, which has helped narrow the country’s trade deficit,” he remarked.

“November has evened out the losses in October, and the April-November figure for exports during the current financial year is higher than the corresponding figure for the same period of the previous year.”

The Central government has implemented measures, including GST rate cuts, a promotion package to diversify export markets and introduced labour reforms to cushion the economy from the impact of punitive tariffs imposed by the US on India’s exports.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump had a telephonic conversation last week following the visit of a high-level team of US officials to Delhi for trade talks.

Meanwhile, India is also working on diversifying its export market. As part of this strategy, the government is looking at as many as 300 products, including engineering goods, pharma, agri, and chemicals, which can be exported to Russia with the two countries targeting a $100 billion trade by 2030, an official said.

At present, India’s exports of these goods to Russia stood at $1.7 billion, as against Russia’s $37.4 billion in imports.

–IANS

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