Ukraine's trade deficit significantly increased: imports almost 2.5 times exceeded exports
Ukraine's foreign trade deficit in goods for January-August 2026 reached about $39.7 billion - approximately 51% more than in the same period last year. Imports increased by 26%, while exports remained practically unchanged.
According to the State Customs Service, Ukraine's total trade turnover for eight months amounted to $92.9 billion. Goods worth almost $66.3 billion were imported into Ukraine, while exports amounted to over $26.6 billion.
For comparison, in January-August 2025, imports amounted to $52.6 billion, and exports - $26.3 billion. Thus, over the year, imports increased by approximately $13.7 billion, or 26%, while exports - only by $0.3 billion, or about 1%. Total trade turnover increased by approximately 18%.
As a result, the gap between imports and exports increased from $26.3 billion last year to $39.7 billion this year. If in eight months of 2025 Ukraine imported twice as many goods as it exported, now imports already exceed exports by almost 2.5 times.
Imports from China increased by almost 70%
China remains the largest supplier of goods to Ukraine. During January-August, products worth more than $19.6 billion were imported from there. This is approximately 30% of all Ukrainian goods imports.
A year earlier, imports from China amounted to $11.6 billion. Thus, over the year, it increased by approximately $8 billion, or almost 70%. For comparison, supplies from Poland grew from $5 billion to almost $6.3 billion, and from Germany - from $4.2 billion to almost $4.4 billion.
Ukraine imported machinery, equipment and transport the most - more than $29.9 billion. Another more than $9.5 billion fell on fuel and energy products, and over $9 billion on chemical industry products. Together, these three categories provided over 73% of all imports.
At the same time, fuel and energy products brought the most customs payments - almost 197 billion UAH, or about 34% of all revenues. Machinery, equipment and transport provided 168.1 billion UAH, chemical industry products - 74.9 billion UAH.
Food remains the basis of exports
Food products remain the main category of Ukrainian exports - over eight months, more than $15.4 billion worth were sold abroad. Nearly $2.7 billion worth of metals and products made from them were exported, and machinery, equipment and transport - approximately $2.4 billion.
Poland remains the largest market for Ukrainian exports - over $3.2 billion. Almost $2.1 billion worth of goods were delivered to Turkey, and more than $1.7 billion to Germany.
Taxable imports for January-August amounted to $46.8 billion, or 71% of the total volume of imported goods. During customs clearance of exports, for which export duty is established, almost 1.1 billion UAH were paid to the state budget.
Sources: State Customs Service of Ukraine, State Customs Service of Ukraine - data for 2025
