(Business in Cameroon) – Cameroon’s trade deficit fell 88 percent in the first quarter of 2025, narrowing to 32.7 billion CFA francs from 273 billion CFA francs a year earlier, the national statistics agency INS said on Thursday.
The improvement was driven by a sharp rise in exports, which jumped 35.3 percent and more than offset a modest 4.7 percent increase in imports, INS said. Export earnings have risen steadily since early 2023 and reached 1,118 billion CFA francs in the first quarter of 2025, up from 826 billion in the same period of 2024.
The report said export revenues surpassed 1,000 billion CFA francs in a single quarter for the first time in recent years. It added that volumes remained broadly stable, indicating that the increase in earnings was mainly due to higher global prices.
Raw cocoa beans accounted for 44.8 percent of export revenue, bringing in 500.3 billion CFA francs. Crude petroleum accounted for 19 percent, or 212 billion CFA francs, while liquefied natural gas made up 10.9 percent, contributing 122 billion CFA francs.
Import spending
Import spending stood at 1,150 billion CFA francs in the first quarter, up 51.3 billion CFA francs, or 4.7 percent, from a year earlier. However, it was down 15 percent from the previous quarter.
Imports remained concentrated in a handful of categories, including hydrocarbons (16.3 percent), cereals (11.2 percent), mechanical machinery (8.8 percent), electrical equipment (7.7 percent) and vehicles and tractors (6.8 percent). These products together made up 50.8 percent of the total import bill, INS said.
In volume terms, Cameroon imported 2.5 million tons of goods, compared with 2.4 million tons in the first quarter of 2024, a 2.7 percent increase. Imports of fuels and lubricants fell 14.6 percent in volume and 24.3 percent in value, while butane gas imports dropped 7 percent in volume and 8 percent in value. Overall spending on hydrocarbon imports fell 22.9 percent.
Thierry Christophe Yamb
