How are Pakistan’s imports from India growing again despite tensions?

Résumé détaillé

Formally, they're not trading at all. But Pakistan's imports from India are back to pre-war levels. Is a thaw next?

Islamabad, Pakistan – In the spring of 2025, Pakistan and India severed most of their remaining links after years of acrimony.

Gunmen had killed 26 people in Pahalgam in India-administered Kashmir that April. New Delhi blamed Pakistan for the attack – Islamabad denied any role – and put the Indus Waters Treaty, governing the sharing of rivers flowing into Pakistan, in abeyance. Pakistan retaliated by closing its airspace to Indian airlines, shutting the Wagah border crossing and suspending trade.

By May, the nuclear-armed neighbours were exchanging missile and drone strikes. Four days of fighting ended in a ceasefire on May 10, for which United States President Donald Trump claimed credit.

Eighteen months later, data from Pakistan’s central bank suggested trade is gradually recovering.

Pakistan imported goods worth $61.7m from India from July to September this year, up 69 percent from the same period a year earlier, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

Here is what the data show, what Pakistan buys from India and how the trade is continuing:

The SBP records payments made by Pakistani banks for imports, broken down by country. From July to September 2025, payments for Indian imports totalled $36.6m.

After the conflict, monthly payments fell from $20m in April 2025 just before the four-day war to $9.2m in June and $8.2m in July before recovering to $19.6m in September.

Over the full 2025-2026 fiscal year, which ended this June, Pakistan paid $203.8m for Indian imports, 7.6 percent less than the previous year.

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