The Tribune

By Neil Hartnell

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas’ trade deficit came close to hitting the $1.2bn mark for the 2025 third quarter after this nation’s goods exports declined by 19 percent year-over-year to hit $128m.

The Bahamas National Statistical Institute (BNSI), unveiling its trade report for the three months to end-September 2025, revealed that the deficit was still well in excess of $1bn despite a 3 percent decline in imports into this nation.

While a growing deficit could be a sign of a healthy and growing economy, especially given that The Bahamas has to import virtually all it consumes, it also means growing pressure on The Bahamas’ services sector and industries such as tourism and financial services - the main foreign currency earners - to fund this bill.

The Bahamas’ trade deficit only measures the exchange of physical goods, and how much imports of this nature exceed exports. It has traditionally been financed from the surplus generated by this nation’s services industries and, if they cannot cove this, it will impose pressure on The Bahamas’ external reserves which support the one:one currency peg with the US dollar.

“Data on the merchandise trade for the 2025 third quarter shows that the value of commodities imported into The Bahamas totalled $1.3bn resulting in a decrease of 3 percent when compared with the same period last year,” the BNSI report said.

“The major groups of merchandise were ‘machinery and transport equipment,’ which totalled $356m, ‘food and live animals’ at $210m and ‘manufactured goods classified chiefly by materials’, which totalled $194m. The combined value of these categories represented 59 percent of total imports.

“Other categories that contributed significantly to total imports were ‘miscellaneous manufactured articles’, which accounted for $163m, ‘mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials’ value at $142m, and ‘chemicals’ at $103m. These groups together represented 31 percent of total imports,” the Institute added.

“Categories that showed a decrease when compared to the same quarter last year were ‘mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials’, and ‘animal and vegetable oils and fats’, which decreased by 43 percent and 5 percent, respectively.”

The Institute continued: “As it relates to total exports for the 2025 third quarter, data shows that the value of commodities exported - domestic and re-export - from The Bahamas totalled $128m, resulting in a decrease of 19 percent when compared with the same period last year.

“The categories that contributed the largest proportion to exports were ‘machinery and transport equipment’, which totalled $27m, ‘manufactured goods classified chiefly by materials’ at $22m, and ‘food and live animals’ at $20m, which combined represented 54 percent of total exports.

“The groups that decreased in value when compared to the same period last year were ‘manufactured goods classified chiefly by materials’, and ‘mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials’ and ‘chemicals’, which declined both by 54 percent and 48 percent, respectively.”