India's total exports of goods and services rose nearly 85 per cent — from $468 billion in 2014-15 to $863 billion in 2025-26 — according to data released by the Commerce and Industry Ministry on 16 June 2025. The figures mark one of the sharpest multi-year export expansions in the country's post-liberalisation history, with services now accounting for nearly half of total outbound trade.

Goods and Services: The Headline Numbers

Merchandise exports climbed from $310 billion in 2014-15 to $442 billion in 2025-26, driven by a structural shift toward high-value categories. Engineering goods and electronic products registered the most significant gains, reflecting India's expanding manufacturing base and a deliberate reorientation of the export basket away from commodities.

Services exports, meanwhile, more than doubled — surging from $158.1 billion to $421.3 billion over the same period. Their share in total exports rose sharply, from 33.8 per cent in 2014-15 to 48.8 per cent in 2025-26. The overall compound annual growth rate for total exports stood at 5.7 per cent, with services recording a notably stronger 9 per cent annual growth.

What Is Driving Services Growth

The expansion in services has been anchored by three structural forces: the rapid scale-up of India's IT sector, the proliferation of global capability centres (GCCs), and a post-pandemic acceleration in the digital delivery of services. Software services alone account for over 40 per cent of total services exports and remain the primary growth engine. Professional and management consulting has emerged as the second-largest contributor — a sign that India's services footprint is broadening beyond traditional IT outsourcing.

Notably, services exports maintained robust growth across the entire 12-year period, with the sole exception of 2020-21, when the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted cross-border delivery.

Policy Measures Behind the Push

The Commerce Ministry attributed part of the export acceleration to a series of trade facilitation steps taken over the period. These include the simplification of 47 processes, automation of foreign trade policy (FTP) procedures, auto-validated Importer Exporter Code issuance, and the launch of a dedicated export promotion mission. Officials said these reforms have lowered compliance friction for exporters, particularly small and mid-sized firms.

Momentum Into 2026-27

The growth trajectory has carried into the current financial year. Merchandise exports clocked an 18 per cent year-on-year rise to $45.2 billion in May 2025, which Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal described as 'one of the highest monthly export growth prints.' This followed a similarly strong April, when merchandise exports reached $43.56 billion against $38.28 billion a year earlier.

Cumulatively, merchandise exports for the April-May 2026-27 period stood at $88.91 billion, representing a 16.09 per cent increase over the corresponding period in the previous year. Officials noted that momentum has held despite headwinds from the West Asia crisis and broader global market uncertainty.

With services exports approaching parity with goods and monthly merchandise prints setting new highs, India's export architecture appears to be in a structural upswing — though sustaining the pace will depend on global demand conditions and the country's ability to move further up the value chain.