{"id":56868,"date":"2026-01-16T16:36:01","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T16:36:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/rwanda-s-imports-drop-by-over-21-in-q3-2025\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T15:34:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T15:34:17","slug":"rwanda-s-imports-drop-by-over-21-in-q3-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/rwanda-s-imports-drop-by-over-21-in-q3-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Rwanda\u2019s imports drop by over 21% in Q3 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

The report shows that total formal external trade in goods amounted to $1.93 billion in Q3 2025, representing a 25.7 percent decline compared to the same quarter in 2024, reflecting a general slowdown in trade activity during the period.<\/p>\n

Within this overall contraction, imports stood at $1.37 billion in Q3 2025, down from $1.75 billion in Q3 2024, marking a 21.85 percent year-on-year decrease. The sharp fall in imports played a key role in easing Rwanda\u2019s trade deficit, even as external trade volumes declined.<\/p>\n

Despite the annual drop, imports rose on a quarterly basis, increasing by 9.74 percent compared to the second quarter of 2025, when imports were valued at $1.25 billion, pointing to a modest rebound in import demand.<\/p>\n

{{Key import sources
\n}}<\/p>\n

China remained Rwanda\u2019s largest source of imports in Q3 2025, supplying goods worth $311.41 million. Other major import partners included Tanzania ($156.85 million), India ($118.47 million), Kenya ($102.24 million) and the United Arab Emirates ($98.87 million). Together, these five countries accounted for 57.55 percent of Rwanda\u2019s total imports during the quarter.<\/p>\n

At the regional level, imports from East African Community (EAC) partner states totaled $325.88 million, marking a 40 percent decline compared to the same quarter in 2024. Tanzania and Kenya continued to dominate Rwanda\u2019s imports from the bloc, jointly accounting for nearly three-quarters of EAC-sourced imports.<\/p>\n

{{Food, machinery and fuel dominate import bill
\n}}<\/p>\n

In terms of commodities, food and live animals remained Rwanda\u2019s largest import category, valued at $248 million in Q3 2025. This was followed by machinery and transport equipment ($244.48 million), manufactured goods classified chiefly by material ($227.72 million), mineral fuels and lubricants ($179.71 million), and chemicals and related products ($173.89 million).<\/p>\n

{{Export performance shows mixed trends
\n}}<\/p>\n

While imports fell sharply, Rwanda\u2019s export performance showed mixed results during the quarter. Domestic exports were valued at $389.99 million in Q3 2025, reflecting a 12.7 percent increase compared to the previous quarter, but a 41.53 percent decline compared to Q3 2024.<\/p>\n

Exports remained concentrated in key markets, led by the United Arab Emirates and the Democratic Republic of Congo, followed by China and regional EAC partners. Exports to the EAC recorded strong year-on-year growth, driven mainly by increased shipments to Uganda.<\/p>\n

Rwanda\u2019s export sector was largely driven by mineral and agricultural commodities. The report shows that gold, coltan, cassiterite and wolfram remained Rwanda\u2019s leading export products in Q3 2025, alongside traditional agricultural exports such as coffee and tea.<\/p>\n

Overall, imports accounted for 70.83 percent of Rwanda\u2019s total trade in goods during the quarter, while domestic exports and re-exports contributed 20.18 percent and 8.99 percent, respectively.<\/p>\n

\"Rwanda\u2019s<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rwanda\u2019s imports declined sharply in the third quarter of 2025, falling by more than 21 percent compared to the same period last year, according to the latest Formal External Trade in Goods report released by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000100742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[174],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-56868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-philbert-girinema"],"bylines":[{"id":174,"name":"Philbert Girinema","slug":"philbert-girinema","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":6}],"contributors":[{"id":174,"name":"Philbert Girinema","slug":"philbert-girinema","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":6}],"featured_image":{"id":2000100742,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/whatsapp-image-2025-02-04-at-10.36_51.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/whatsapp-image-2025-02-04-at-10.36_51.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/whatsapp-image-2025-02-04-at-10.36_51.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/whatsapp-image-2025-02-04-at-10.36_51.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/whatsapp-image-2025-02-04-at-10.36_51.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/whatsapp-image-2025-02-04-at-10.36_51.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000100742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56868"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=56868"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=56868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}