Merchandise Imports in India
In the year 2024, the merchandise imports in India was USD 720.2 billion, compared to USD 448.0 billion in 2014 and USD 678.2 billion in 2023. It averaged USD 526.2 billion over the last decade. For more imports information, visit our dedicated page.
India Merchandise Imports Chart
Note: This chart displays Imports (USD billion) for India from 2024 to 2016.
Source: Macrobond.
India Merchandise Imports Data
2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Merchandise Imports (USD bn) | 475 | 394 | 613 | 716 | 678 |
Merchandise Imports (ann. var. %) | -7.7 | -16.9 | 55.4 | 16.8 | -5.3 |
Trade deficit unexpectedly worsens in January, raising pressure on brittle rupee
Latest reading: Merchandise exports fell 2.4% year on year in January, a sharper decline than December’s 1.0% decrease. This marked the sixth shrinkage in seven months, pointing to a downtrend in the value of Indian exports resulting from lower oil prices. Meanwhile, merchandise imports shot up 10.3% on an annual basis in January (December: +4.9% yoy). As a result, the merchandise trade balance unexpectedly deteriorated from the previous month, recording a USD 23.0 billion deficit in January (December 2025: USD 21.9 billion deficit; January 2024: USD 16.6 billion deficit). This will raise pressure on the rupee, which has recently slumped to record lows as a result of the U.S. threatening blanket tariffs. Lastly, the trend pointed down, with the 12-month trailing merchandise trade balance recording a USD 268.6 billion deficit in January, compared to a USD 262.2 billion deficit in December.
Panelist insight: Goldman Sachs analysts commented on the potential impact on India of possible U.S. tariffs: “India's gross exports to the US is one of the lowest among its EM peers at ~2.0% of GDP. We estimate a potential domestic GDP growth impact of 0.1-0.3pp under different scenarios of increase in average US effective tariff rate on Indian exports (under country-level reciprocity and product-level reciprocity), and different estimates of price elasticity of US demand for Indian exports. However, in case of global tariffs on all countries from the US, India's domestic activity exposure to US final demand would be roughly twice as high (~4.0% of GDP) given exposure to the US via exports to other countries, and would likely result in a potential domestic GDP growth impact of 0.1-0.6pp.”
How should you choose a forecaster if some are too optimistic while others are too pessimistic? FocusEconomics collects Indian merchandise imports projections for the next ten years from a panel of 9 analysts at the leading national, regional and global forecast institutions. These projections are then validated by our in-house team of economists and data analysts and averaged to provide one Consensus Forecast you can rely on for each indicator. By averaging all forecasts, upside and downside forecasting errors tend to cancel each other out, leading to the most reliable merchandise imports forecast available for Indian merchandise imports.
Download one of our sample reports to visualize what a Consensus Forecast is and see our Indian merchandise imports projections.
Want to get access to the full dataset of Indian merchandise imports forecasts? Send an email to info@focus-economics.com.
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