knbs ke.knbs.trade-balance-by-country.annual annual

Trade Balance by Region and Country.

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VERSION v2026-08-25

UPDATED 12d ago

CHECKED 1d ago

COVERAGE 2019 - 2024

SHAPE 1,566 × 10

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FREQUENCY annual

PIPELINE automated

LICENSE Not stated

SOURCE www.knbs.or.ke

Who Kenya trades with, and which way the money runs, for the six years to 2024. 1,566 observations: exports and re-exports, imports, and the balance between them, for 73 countries and the regional groupings and totals above them.

Africa is the only region Kenya sells more to than it buys from. Its surplus with the continent was KSh 154.9 billion in 2024, almost all of it with COMESA at KSh 167.2 billion, offset by a small deficit of KSh 12.3 billion with the rest of Africa. Every other region is a deficit: Europe KSh 165.0 billion, America KSh 120.9 billion, and Asia KSh 1,483.3 billion.

Asia is more than nine tenths of the whole gap. Kenya's total merchandise deficit was KSh 1,594.0 billion in 2024 and Asia alone accounts for KSh 1,483.3 billion of it, the Far East, Australia and Oceania contributing KSh 1,097.5 billion and the Middle East KSh 385.8 billion.

China is the single largest counterparty to that gap, at KSh 549.8 billion, followed by India at KSh 244.2 billion and the United Arab Emirates at KSh 235.9 billion.

Kenya's neighbours are where the surpluses are. Uganda at KSh 88.3 billion is the largest, then Rwanda at KSh 38.5 billion, South Sudan at KSh 29.7 billion and the Democratic Republic of the Congo at KSh 28.3 billion. The Netherlands at KSh 26.4 billion is the largest surplus outside Africa, on horticulture. Of the 73 countries named, 32 are in surplus and 41 in deficit.

The United Kingdom appears twice in every year, once under the European Union and once under the rest of Western Europe, because it left the EU in February 2020 and the source keeps both rows. Its European Union row carries 2019 alone. Filter on the region and subregion columns, not on the country name, or the two rows collapse into one.

Figures are in thousands of Kenya shillings and the balance is negative for most partners, so the value column spans both signs.

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WHERE THE GAP IS

Africa is the only region Kenya sells more to than it buys from, and Asia accounts for more than nine tenths of its trade deficit.

Trade balance by region · KSh · 2024

SOURCE: Kenya National Bureau of Statistics · Trade Balance by Region and Country (annual) · Updated 2026-08-25

#	year	period_start	region	subregion	country	is_total	measure	value	unit	status
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COLUMN	TYPE	DESCRIPTION	UNIT
year	int64	Calendar year the trade took place in	-
period_start	date	First day of that calendar year	-
region	string	Africa, America, Asia or Europe	-
subregion	string	The grouping within the region, such as European Union or COMESA. Empty on a total row	-
country	string	The country, or the name of a total row. The United Kingdom appears under two subregions and is not unique on its own	-
is_total	bool	True for a total row. Summing value without filtering on this counts the same trade several times over	-
measure	string	Exports and Re-Exports, Imports, or Trade Balance. The source spells the first of these two ways across its four blocks and they are one measure here	-
value	float64	The figure as printed, in thousands of Kenya shillings	-
unit	string	Always ksh_thousand	-
status	string	final, or provisional for a year the source marks with an asterisk	-

CITATION · APA 7

imibare contributors. (2026). Trade Balance by Region and Country [Data set]. imibare. v2026-08-25. https://imibare.org/datasets/ke.knbs.trade-balance-by-country.annual