Economy · Imports of goods and services · Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso’s imports of goods and services fell to 30% of GDP in 2025.
30% of GDP
2025
Down 1.9 pp from 2024.
Updated 8 Oct 2026
In plain words
30% of GDP
What it is. This measure adds up everything residents of Burkina Faso buy from abroad, both goods such as fuel, machinery and food and services such as freight and travel, and divides the total by GDP. Expressing imports as a share of the economy lets years of different size and prices be compared. It records the value of purchases only, so it says nothing about what is bought or how much of it feeds local production. Price swings and exchange rates can move the ratio, as can changes in GDP itself.
Neither way is good in itself. A higher share means the economy leans more heavily on foreign supply and on world prices. A lower share can reflect stronger domestic output or weaker demand for foreign goods, so the direction alone settles little. The latest figure is 30% of GDP for 2025, down from 31.9% of GDP a year earlier, a fall of 1.9 percentage points. Since 2016 the share has ranged from 29% of GDP in 2020 to 36.3% of GDP in 2022. The current level therefore sits close to the bottom of that range and well below the 2022 peak.
Why it matters. At 30% of GDP, foreign purchases claim a smaller share of national income than in 2022. Households and firms are somewhat less exposed to swings in the price of imported fuel, equipment and food. The state, which collects customs duties on imports, has a smaller import base relative to the economy than it had at the peak.
| Period | Imports of goods and services · Burkina Faso |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 32% of GDP |
| 2017 | 32.8% of GDP |
| 2018 | 32.5% of GDP |
| 2019 | 31.2% of GDP |
| 2020 | 29% of GDP |
| 2021 | 29.6% of GDP |
| 2022 | 36.3% of GDP |
| 2023 | 34.2% of GDP |
| 2024 | 31.9% of GDP |
| 2025 | 30% of GDP |
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators (CC BY 4.0) · Licence: CC BY 4.0
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Strata-AF™ Data, Imports of goods and services, Burkina Faso, 2025; source World Bank, World Development Indicators (CC BY 4.0), retrieved 8 Oct 2026; https://data.strata-af.com/economy/imports/burkina-faso
Data insights · Worked out from the published figures
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Working this out from the published figures…
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Methodology
Imports of goods and services as a share of GDP. Unit: % of GDP.
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators (series NE.IMP.GNFS.ZS), retrieved through the World Bank API and published under CC BY 4.0. Updated annually; the World Bank's own source notes apply.