New Delhi: A 19.19% increase in year-on-year imports took India’s goods trade deficit to a three-month high of $34.68 billion in January 2026 with imports standing at $71.23 billion, reported The Hindu Businessline.While the imports were largely fuelled by gold and silver inflows, exports registered a marginal increase of 0.61% to $36.56 billion. The latest trade deficit is much higher than what it was in January 2025, when the figure stood at $23.43 billion.“The country’s exports remain northwards both in goods and services… We expect to be in the vicinity of $860 billion overall exports in the current fiscal. And in services we expect to be over $410 billion,” commerce secretary Rajesh Agrawal said at a media briefing on Monday (February 16).In FY25, the combined exports of goods and services stood at $825.3 billion, registering a 6.1 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) growth. At the same time, exports of goods were almost flat at $437.42 billion, said The Hindu Businessline report.Meanwhile, China was India’s top source of imports in January 2026 with inbound shipments increasing 16.67% to $12.23 billion.India’s gold imports in January 2026 increased a whopping 349.22% to $12.07 billion while silver imports stood at 127% higher at $2 billion.