Import prices in Cape Verde rose 25.7% in September 2026 compared with the same month of 2025, according to the bulletin published on Tuesday 20 October by the National Statistics Institute (INE). Fuels recorded a 55.9% year-on-year increase, well above that of other major categories of goods.
Month on month, the overall import price index rose 5.9% after a 1.8% fall in August. Fuels, up 6.1% between August and September, contributed 3.2 percentage points to this rise, or more than half of the total.
Intermediate goods also became more expensive, with a monthly increase of 11.1%. Processed products for construction cost in particular 18.9% more than in August. Conversely, capital goods fell 4.2%, due to lower machinery prices.
For imported consumer goods, the increase reached 4.7% month on month but was limited to 0.6% year on year. Processed food products in this category rose 5.9% compared with August and 1% compared with September 2025. The surge in the overall index therefore does not affect imported products uniformly.
The indicator is based on values and quantities declared to customs. Imports are recorded at cost, insurance and freight. These unit values approximate price trends for goods entering the country, without directly measuring retail prices or the inflation experienced by households.
Export prices, meanwhile, rose 3.5% year on year and 5.3% month on month. Their slower rise than that of imports worsened the terms of trade, whose index fell 17.7% year on year and 0.6% between August and September, according to the INE.