BRICS Supplies 42% of India’s Imports, but Buys Only 22% of Its Exports

The 11 BRICS economies—Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the UAE—are a major force in world merchandise trade. However, trade within the group is dominated by China. India’s trade with BRICS is also increasingly driven by imports, resulting in a large and rapidly growing deficit.

India’s total goods trade with BRICS more than doubled from $203.1 billion in 2020-21 to $417.5 billion in 2025-26. However, imports grew much faster than exports.

India’s exports to BRICS increased 48.8%, from $64.3 billion to $95.7 billion. Imports rose 131.8%, from $138.8 billion to $321.8 billion. As a result, India’s trade deficit with BRICS more than tripled from $74.5 billion to $226.1 billion.

During the same period, India’s exports to the rest of the world increased 52%, from $227.5 billion to $345.8 billion—slightly faster than exports to BRICS. Therefore, the BRICS share in India’s exports fell marginally from 22% to 21.7%. In contrast, imports from the rest of the world rose 77.6%, from $255.6 billion to $453.9 billion, while imports from BRICS increased 131.8%. This pushed the BRICS share in India’s imports sharply higher, from 35.2% to 41.5%.

The UAE was India’s largest export market within BRICS in 2025-26, receiving goods worth $37.4 billion, up 124% from 2020-21. China ranked second at $19.5 billion. Other major destinations were Saudi Arabia at $10.3 billion, Brazil and South Africa at $7 billion each, and Russia and Indonesia at $4.5 billion each. India’s exports declined to Indonesia, Iran and Ethiopia.

China remained India’s largest supplier within BRICS. Imports from China doubled from $65.2 billion to $131.6 billion and accounted for about 41% of India’s BRICS imports. The UAE supplied goods worth $63.9 billion. Imports from Russia increased more than tenfold, from $5.5 billion to $55.4 billion, mainly because of higher energy purchases. China, the UAE and Russia together accounted for almost 84% of India’s imports from BRICS.

India’s global exports increased from $291.8 billion in 2020-21 to $441.5 billion in 2025-26, while imports rose from $394.4 billion to $775.7 billion. Consequently, India’s overall merchandise trade deficit widened from $102.6 billion to $334.3 billion.

Intra-BRICS and Global Trade

BRICS countries export about $1.1 trillion to one another, equal to 18.8% of their combined global exports. They import $1.4 trillion from fellow BRICS members, representing 29.5% of their global imports. Thus, BRICS is more important to its members as a source of imports than as an export market.

Intra-BRICS exports account for only 4.1% of world exports, while intra-BRICS imports represent 5.4% of world imports.

In 2025, BRICS countries exported goods worth $5.67 trillion, accounting for 21.6% of world exports of $26.3 trillion. Their imports totalled $4.58 trillion, or 17.3% of world imports of $26.5 trillion. The bloc therefore recorded an overall merchandise trade surplus of about $1.09 trillion.

China dominates intra-BRICS trade, exporting $550.8 billion to other members and importing $464.9 billion from them. India has the group’s largest trade deficit at $226.1 billion. Brazil is more evenly integrated, with BRICS accounting for 36.6% of its exports and 35.5% of its imports. Iran and Ethiopia depend heavily on BRICS supplies. Saudi Arabia sends only 8.9% of its exports to BRICS but sources 45.4% of its imports from the group.

Overall, intra-BRICS trade follows a China-centred hub-and-spoke pattern, rather than a balanced trading network. Its share of world trade remains modest at about 4–5%, leaving considerable scope for growth through better market access, lower trade barriers, improved logistics, local-currency settlement and more diversified supply chains.

For India, the priority should be to correct the growing imbalance. BRICS is becoming an increasingly important source of machinery, industrial inputs, energy and commodities, but it is not absorbing a comparable share of Indian exports. India should seek better market access in China, Russia and Indonesia, address non-tariff barriers, promote higher-value exports and reduce excessive dependence on a few BRICS suppliers. Without stronger export growth, deeper intra-BRICS trade could further widen India’s already large trade deficit.

The intra BRICS trade data: The estimates use the latest WITS data available: 2025 for India, Egypt, Brazil, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia; 2024 for China; 2023 for Ethiopia; 2022 for Iran; 2021 for Russia AND 2020 for UAE. GTRI estimated intra-BRICS trade using these different reference years.