Does India run a current account deficit?
RBI · released 8 Jun 2026 · next due by 30 Jun 2027
| Period | Value (% of GDP) |
|---|---|
| 2025-26 | −0.6 |
| 2024-25 | −0.6 |
| 2023-24 | −0.7 |
| 2022-23 | −2.0 |
| 2021-22 | −1.2 |
| 2020-21 | 0.9 |
| 2019-20 | −0.8 |
| 2018-19 | −2.1 |
| 2017-18 | −1.8 |
| 2016-17 | −0.6 |
| 2015-16 | −1.0 |
| 2014-15 | −1.3 |
| 2013-14 | −1.7 |
| 2012-13 | −4.8 |
| 2011-12 | −4.3 |
Use in your answer
India's current account balance was −0.6% of GDP in 2025-26, compared with −0.6% of GDP in 2024-25; a negative figure is a deficit. Source: RBI, Handbook of Statistics on the Indian Economy 2025-26, Table 241: Balance of Payments - Indicators; RBI press release of 8 June 2026 on BoP in Q4 2025-26.
Cite as: Balance of Payments; Handbook of Statistics on the Indian Economy 2025-26, Table 241 (RBI)
What this shows
- India ran a current account deficit of US$ 25.2 billion, 0.6% of GDP, in 2025-26, against US$ 22.9 billion (also 0.6% of GDP) in 2024-25.
- The only surplus in this period was in 2020-21 (0.9% of GDP); the widest deficit was 4.8% of GDP in 2012-13.
- The January–March 2026 quarter showed a surplus of US$ 7.1 billion (0.7% of GDP), while the October–December 2025 deficit was revised up to US$ 15.5 billion (1.5% of GDP).
Cite this
Cite a fixed version from every published version below.
Source and method
What exactly is measured
India's current account balance (trade in goods and services, primary income and transfers) as a share of GDP, by financial year, from the RBI's balance-of-payments data. A negative number is a deficit, a positive one a surplus. The latest year is preliminary.
History: every published version
Each time the source changes this series we archive the full series as it stood, with an archived copy of the source, and never delete an old version. Each version has a permanent page you can cite. Recorded since 18 Oct 2026: 1 version.
No figure in this series has been revised since we began recording on 18 Oct 2026.
Release notes (2)
- -0.6% of GDP2025-26, preliminary (BoP release for Q4 2025-26)
- -0.6% of GDP2025-26 and revised 2024-25 to two decimals (Handbook of Statistics 2025-26)
Get the data
Use it in Excel, Python or R
Excel (Data → From Web): https://india.tf/c/trd-cab-043/data.csv
Python: pandas.read_csv("https://india.tf/c/trd-cab-043/data.csv")
R: read.csv("https://india.tf/c/trd-cab-043/data.csv")
All statistics: /api/index.json. Free to reuse with attribution (RBI website terms of use).
