Xifres de comerç exterior de Burkina Faso

Foreign Trade in Figures

Burkina Faso is open to foreign trade, which represents 65% of the country’s GDP (World Bank, latest available data). As part of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), Burkina Faso has regulated its tariff structure. Goods produced in the Union are exempt from import tax. However, internal and external crises (in neighbouring Mali), as well as the actions of radical groups in the Sahel, have had a negative impact on trade and the industrial outlook. Gold is the main export (78.8% of total exports in 2023). Burkina Faso is one of the largest exporters of cotton in West Africa, and its production of cotton has quadrupled in the past ten years. However, the commodity has seen its share in exports decrease from 15.8% of total exports in 2016 to 5.6% in 2023 (Comtrade). The country’s main imports are petroleum oils (34.2%), cement (3.5%), electrical energy (3.3%), medicaments (3.1%), and rice (2%).

Burkina Faso's main export partners are Switzerland (67.6%), United Arab Emirates (8.5%), Mali (6.0%), Ivory Coast (3.0%), India (1.9%), Ghana (1.8%), and Singapore (1.8%); whereas imports come chiefly from Ivory Coast (13.9%), China (13.7%), France (7.4%), Ghana (6.4%), and India (5.7% - data Comtrade for 2023)

Burkina Faso’s trade balance is structurally negative, but the trade deficit has been decreasing gradually over the past years due to increased gold and cotton exports and lower imports. The trade balance recorded a deficit estimated at 7.1% of GDP in 2023, from 1.4% one year earlier (World Bank). In the same year, the country exported USD 4.3 billion worth of goods, against USD 5.8 billion in imports (-4.6% and +6.5% year-on-year, respectively - WTO). According to figures from the National Statistics Institute, in the first three quarters of 2024, exports totalled XOF 2,510 billion, up by 25.5% year-on-year; while imports reached XOF 2,832 billion (+8.8%).