India's export performance demonstrated resilience in December 2025, with merchandise exports increasing by 1.9% year-on-year to reach $38.51 billion. This growth comes despite a challenging global economic landscape characterized by geo-political conflicts, shipping disruptions, and significant US tariffs. For the broader April-December 2025-26 period, India's overall exports, combining both goods and services, registered a positive growth of 4.33%, totaling $634.26 billion. Services exports, in particular, were a strong performer, expanding by an estimated 6.46% during this nine-month fiscal period. The 'braving' of US tariffs is notable, as the Trump administration implemented a substantial 50% additional tariff on a range of Indian goods starting August 2025. While exports specifically to the US saw a marginal monthly drop in December 2025 to $6.88 billion from $7.01 billion a year prior, overall shipments to the US for April-December 2025-26 still grew by nearly 10% to $65.88 billion. This indicates a strategic diversification and resilience in sectors like electronics and pharmaceuticals, which benefited from tariff exemptions, as well as marine products that found new markets, notably China. However, this export growth was accompanied by an increase in imports, leading to a widening trade deficit. India's merchandise trade deficit expanded to $25.04 billion in December 2025 from $20.6 billion in December 2024. The overall trade deficit (merchandise and services) for December 2025 stood at $6.92 billion. Key sectors contributing positively to export growth included electronic goods, engineering goods, gems and jewellery, and drugs and pharmaceuticals. Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal expressed optimism, projecting that India's total exports for the current fiscal year (FY 2025-26) are on track to surpass $850 billion.