Exports Rise 15% In April-August This Fiscal: Piyush Goyal

 

New Delhi : India's merchandise exports have risen by about 15 per cent in April-August this fiscal despite global uncertainties, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Wednesday.

Addressing the BRICS Women's Business Alliance (WBA) Women-Led Development Summit 2026 here, he said that huge potential exists between India and BRICS nations to increase trade in goods and services.

Despite all the turmoil that the world is going through today...we are well aware of the softening of internal trade. I am happy to share that our merchandise exports from India have grown between April and August, in the first five months of this fiscal, by upward of 15 per cent," he said.

 

The commerce ministry will release the exports and imports data for August formally on September 15. During April-July this fiscal, exports jumped 17.04 per cent to USD 173.78 billion, and imports climbed 19.27 per cent to USD 292.38 billion. The minister suggested that BRICS members support women entrepreneurs through financial intermediaries.

"If we can commit our governments to encourage women-owned enterprises to take greater part in international expositions, conferences, seminars, exhibitions, business forums, it will actually help us engage on many more platforms than an annual Women Business Alliance meeting," he said.

Goyal called upon BRICS countries to work together to expand opportunities for women entrepreneurs and women-led enterprises in international trade, stressing the need for easier access to credit, markets and predictable rules of business.

 

He said that an entrepreneur seeking to enter international business has to cross three key borders: access to credit, access to buyers and markets, and access to predictable rules that encourage free trade and open opportunities.

Goyal said India would like to bring the lessons learnt from its experience in addressing the challenges faced by entrepreneurs, particularly women entrepreneurs, to the BRICS Women's Business Alliance and the larger BRICS business engagement.

 

On expanding access to international markets, Goyal referred to the meeting of BRICS Commerce and Industry Ministers held in Jaipur last month, where ministers agreed on voluntary principles for assessing small exporters.

He said the assessment should not be based only on invoices and payments, but also on the entrepreneur's ability and the change from the past to the present and the future.

He said foreign trade should not be viewed only as a collateralised business, but as an opportunity to integrate societies and businesses and provide opportunities to marginalised sections that may otherwise never imagine going overseas.

He added that BRICS countries had also agreed in the Jaipur Consensus to explore a common BRICS platform for international trade, which could help address the second challenge faced by entrepreneurs, namely access to markets and buyers.