East Africa
Exports within the EAC grew as their share of the total fell
East African Community members shipped USD 3.2 billion in exports to each other in the second quarter of 2026, up 33.2% from a year earlier. Their share fell from 12.8% to 12.1% because overall exports grew faster. Exports to China rose from USD 5.7 billion to USD 10.7 billion.
Sources checked
Export value
Scale · 0 USD billion to 26.3 USD billion
Annual growth
Scale · 0% to 50.8%
Switch between value and growth. The geographic groupings overlap.
Value rose on both sides of the trade account
The EAC reported USD 26.3 billion of exports and USD 26.0 billion of imports. Exports rose 41.3% and imports 32.9%. The USD 0.3 billion reported surplus contrasts with a USD 945.3 million deficit a year earlier. Source 1
The within-region share fell despite higher export value
Trade within the EAC rose by about one-third. Overall exports rose faster. That difference brought the share of exports staying inside the bloc down by 0.7 percentage points, even as the amount increased. Source 1
The regional groups cannot be added together
Exports to all African partners were about USD 7.2 billion. The EAC also reported USD 5.1 billion to SADC and USD 3.1 billion to COMESA. Those blocs overlap with one another and include EAC members, so the same shipment can appear in more than one group. Source 1 Source 2
China’s trade values grew and the export mix remained concentrated
China received about USD 10.7 billion of EAC exports and supplied USD 7.1 billion of imports. The bulletin reported copper and precious metals at 61.9% of all exports, up from 58.7%. The figures show export value, which can move with prices as well as physical shipments. Source 1