Exports, Imports, Trade Deficit Rise

Nepal’s foreign trade jumped 22.54 percent year-on-year in the first two months of fiscal year 2025/26, with exports and imports rising nearly 88.57 percent and 16.23 percent, respectively, according to the latest Foreign Trade Statistics released by the Department of Customs.

Between mid-July and mid-September 2025, total trade reached Rs 352.47 billion, up from Rs 287.63 billion during the same period last year. Imports stood at Rs 305.15 billion, compared to Rs 262.54 billion a year earlier, while exports climbed to Rs 47.31 billion from Rs 25.09 billion.

Refined soybean oil remained the leading export, valued at Rs 20.42 billion. Other notable outbound shipments included woollen and fine animal-hair carpets and textile floor coverings (Rs 1.58 billion), sunflower-seed and safflower oil (excluding crude) (Rs 1.38 billion), and refined bleached deodorised palm olein (Rs 1.31 billion).

Refined soybean oil worth nearly half of the total exports in terms of value in the first month of the current fiscal year.

On the import side, crude soybean oil topped the list at Rs 21.64 billion, followed by diesel (Rs 14.91 billion), diammonium phosphate (Rs 13.66 billion), petrol (Rs 10.58 billion), liquefied petroleum gas (Rs 9.43 billion), and smartphones (Rs 8.87 billion).

Despite robust export growth, Nepal’s trade deficit widened 8.59 percent to Rs 257.83 billion in the two-month period, compared to Rs 237.44 billion during the same period last year.

In FY 2024/25, which ended on July 16, Nepal’s exports soared 81.8 percent to a record Rs 277.03 billion – the highest ever – up from Rs 152.38 billion in 2023/24, driven primarily by refined edible oil shipments. Imports grew 13.25 percent to Rs 1,804.12 billion, compared with Rs 1,592.99 billion the previous year.

Nepal exported refined soybean oil worth Rs 106.79 billion, capitalising on India’s duty hike on crude and edible oil imports in mid-September 2024. However, the southern neighbour slashed the duty at the end of May, 2025 affecting Nepali refineries that benefit from the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement, which allows duty-free exports to India.