Key Points
- Paraguay’s exports climbed to $16.7203 billion in 2025, but imports jumped to $18.1111 billion, leaving a $1.3907 billion goods-trade deficit.
- The export mix mattered: registered exports grew slowly, re-exports surged, and maquila shipments advanced, pointing to both hub activity and industrial upgrading.
- The import bill was driven by machinery and parts, suggesting investment and demand strength, but also a bigger need for hard-currency discipline.
Paraguay closed 2025 with a trade story that looks stronger and riskier at the same time. Total exports reached $16.7203 billion, up 5.8% from 2024. Yet imports expanded even faster, rising 10.6% to $18.1111 billion.
That pushed the country’s goods-trade balance to a deficit of about $1.3907 billion, more than double the shortfall recorded the year before. The composition of exports explains why the top-line gain can be misleading.
Registered exports, the core measure tied to domestic production, totaled $11.0821 billion, up just 1.5%. The bigger jump came from re-exports, which surged 17.2% to $4.5847 billion, underscoring Paraguay’s role as a regional trading platform.
“Other exports” added $1.0535 billion, up 7.7%, rounding out a picture of an economy that earns foreign currency through multiple channels, not only commodities. Sector-by-sector, soy remained the single largest export line at $2.354 billion, even after a sharp annual drop.
Beef and beef offal moved the other way, climbing 21.9% to about $2.1732 billion. Electricity exports generated roughly $1.2212 billion, up 2.8%.
Corn exports reached around $596 million, soybean oil about $612 million, and industrial items such as wires and electrical conductors brought in roughly $405 million.
Maquila exports rise, imports shift patterns
The maquila regime offered a clearer sign of production upgrading: maquila exports hit about $1.2367 billion, up 10%, reflecting the steady expansion of export-oriented manufacturing.
Imports tell the second half of the story. Electrical machinery and parts led the surge at roughly $3.3017 billion, up 24.2%, while fuel and lubricants fell 12.9% to about $1.7752 billion.
Imports for internal use totaled about $14.5675 billion, and purchases under the tourism regime about $3.1544 billion, tying the import cycle to both domestic demand and cross-border commerce.
Brazil remained the top export destination at about $3.434 billion, while China led imports by share, with Brazil second and the United States third.
The challenge for 2026 is straightforward: keep expanding competitive exports and investment-linked manufacturing, while preventing an import boom from becoming a long-term external vulnerability.