Nepal’s Top 20 Imports Account for Rs 187 Billion – Fuel, Oil and Vehicles Dominate NRB Data

Nepal’s import composition for the first two months of FY 2025/26 reveals that the top 20 imported commoditiescollectively accounted for Rs. 187.57 billion, representing over 61.5% of total imports, according to the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) Mid-September 2025/26 report. This highlights the country’s continued reliance on high-value goods such as petroleum products, crude soybean oil, and transport equipment, which together dominate the nation’s import basket.

The report shows that petroleum products remained Nepal’s single largest import, amounting to Rs. 39.58 billion, contributing 13% of total imports, and recording a modest 2.2% year-on-year increase. Following this, crude soybean oil emerged as the second-largest import at Rs. 21.65 billion, signaling strong demand from Nepal’s domestic edible oil refineries that reprocess and export refined oil. Meanwhile, transport equipment, vehicles, and spare parts ranked third, rising by 31.7% to Rs. 20.58 billion, reflecting growing consumer and industrial demand for automobiles and logistics-related machinery.

Other major imports include chemical fertilizers (Rs. 16.18 billion, +68.1%), telecommunication equipment (Rs. 10.55 billion, +29.1%), and machinery and parts (Rs. 12.91 billion, +1.5%). These categories underline Nepal’s ongoing dependence on industrial, agricultural, and digital infrastructure imports. Similarly, gold imports more than doubled (+114.7%) to Rs. 3.42 billion, reflecting rising festive and investment-driven demand in the bullion market.

At the same time, readymade garment imports and medicines showed moderate declines of -19.7% and -2%, respectively, indicating slight shifts in domestic consumption patterns and inventory management. Despite these minor dips, the overall import volume expanded by 16.2%, with Nepal’s total imports reaching Rs. 305.15 billion during the review period.

Economists caution that while the rise in capital and consumer goods imports reflects renewed economic activity, it also reinforces Nepal’s persistent trade deficit challenge. With imports heavily concentrated in petroleum, vehicles, and industrial inputs, experts emphasize the importance of import substitution policies, domestic production incentives, and energy diversification to sustain external stability in the long term.