Trade deficit widens 13.04% to Rs 1,267.56 billion in nine months

KATHMANDU: Nepal’s trade deficit widened by 13.04% in the first nine months of the current fiscal year 2025/26, underscoring the country’s continued dependence on imports.

Foreign trade data released by the Department of Customs on Monday shows the trade deficit rose to Rs 1,267.56 billion in the third quarter of the current fiscal year, up from a deficit of Rs 1,121.33 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal year.

The trade deficit widened as imports continued to outpace exports. Total imports rose by 13.82% to Rs 1,490.49 billion over the third quarter of 2025/26, up from Rs 1,309.53 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal year. Although exports grew at a relatively faster rate of 18.46% to Rs 222.93 billion, compared to Rs 188.19 billion in the first nine months of 2024/25, a small export base limited its impact in narrowing the trade gap.

Total foreign trade expanded by 14.40% to Rs 1,713.43 billion in the first nine months. In the same period of the previous fiscal year, total foreign trade was worth Rs 1,497.72 billion.

Despite the improvement in export earnings, the import-export ratio stood at 6.69 in the first nine months of the current fiscal year, which means imports were nearly seven times higher than exports. This marked a slight improvement from the ratio of 6.96 in the same period of the previous year.

The share of exports in total trade edged up to 13.01% from 12.57% in the first nine months of the previous fiscal year. The share of imports in total trade fell marginally to 86.99%, down from 87.43% a year ago.

Top 5 Imports

Top 5 Exports