Trade lanes

What Nepal buys, and from whom.

Nepal imported USD 6.3bn of manufactured and processed goods in 2024, down 16 per cent on 2022. These are its twenty largest source countries. 2 of them ship enough, across enough product lines, to have a lane page of their own.

Trade year 2024, compared with 2022.

By source

The twenty countries Nepal imports most from.

A lane page is written where the source ships USD 1bn or more a year across at least 50 product lines worth USD 1m each. For what Nepal is best placed to make itself, see Made here: Nepal.

  1. 1

    India

    Share of Nepal's imports56 per cent
    Changedown 15 per cent on 2022
    USD 3.6bnin 2024
  2. 2

    China

    Share of Nepal's imports32 per cent
    Changeup 12 per cent on 2022
    USD 2.0bnin 2024
  3. 3

    France

    Share of Nepal's imports1 per cent
    Changeup 21 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 40min 2024
  4. 4

    Thailand

    Share of Nepal's imports1 per cent
    Changedown 55 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 40min 2024
  5. 5

    United States

    Share of Nepal's imports1 per cent
    Changedown 69 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 37min 2024
  6. 6

    Germany

    Share of Nepal's imports1 per cent
    Changedown 21 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 36min 2024
  7. 7

    South Korea

    Share of Nepal's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changedown 56 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 28min 2024
  8. 8

    Malaysia

    Share of Nepal's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changedown 61 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 27min 2024
  9. 9

    Netherlands

    Share of Nepal's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changedown 25 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 25min 2024
  10. 10

    Belgium

    Share of Nepal's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changedown 72 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 25min 2024
  11. 11

    Italy

    Share of Nepal's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changeup 9 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 22min 2024
  12. 12

    Brunei

    Share of Nepal's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changefrom USD 12k in 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 20min 2024
  13. 13

    United Kingdom

    Share of Nepal's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changedown 49 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 17min 2024
  14. 14

    Japan

    Share of Nepal's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changedown 66 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 17min 2024
  15. 15

    Austria

    Share of Nepal's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changedown 14 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 14min 2024
  16. 16

    Taiwan

    Share of Nepal's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changedown 56 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 13min 2024
  17. 17

    Indonesia

    Share of Nepal's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changedown 87 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 13min 2024
  18. 18

    Bahrain

    Share of Nepal's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changefrom USD 48k in 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 12min 2024
  19. 19

    Spain

    Share of Nepal's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changeup 16 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 12min 2024
  20. 20

    Switzerland

    Share of Nepal's importsunder 1 per cent
    Changedown 8 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 11min 2024
What this record says

What crossed the border, what it was worth, and what it weighed.

Every figure on this page is from CEPII's BACI file, which reconciles what each pair of countries reports to the UN about the same shipment. Trade year 2024, compared with 2022. A line is one six-digit customs heading (HS 2022). Values are in US dollars at the border; growth is in current dollars, so part of any change is price, not volume.

Unit value. Unit values are customs values per tonne, declared at the border, not product prices. It is the value of a line divided by its declared weight, so it mixes grades, models and qualities under one heading. It is shown only where the weight is recorded, at least three source countries of USD 100k or more ship the line to Nepal with a weight, and the figure sits within a factor of five of the middle of those sources. Outside that band it is treated as a recording problem and left out.

Share is India's part of everything Nepal imported in that line, from every source. Sources counts the countries that shipped any of it.

Scope. Manufactured and processed goods, customs chapters 16 to 96, without ores, fuels, precious metals, scrap, raw farm output and one-off capital and defence purchases: the same rule as the Made here pages.

What it does not say

A record of trade, not a shopping list.

What this record does not say: what sells at retail, what margin a trade leaves, how crowded the marketplaces are, or how much of a flow is re-exported through entrepots such as Hong Kong and Singapore.

A large line is not proof of an opening, and a lower unit value from another country is not proof the goods are the same. Tariffs, standards, freight, payment terms, lead times and the plain fact that a supplier is good at it are all invisible here. Nothing on this page is a forecast, a recommendation or a promise. No supplier company is named, because the record holds none.

Source: CEPII BACI, HS22, version 202601. Edition of 2026-11-03.