As with GDP, there is immense difficulty in determining accurate statistics for international trade for the Democratic Republic of Congo, thanks to the difficulty
| Trade (expressed in billions of US$): Democratic Republic of the Congo | ||
| Exports | Imports | |
| 1975 | .275 | .300 |
| 1980 | .544 | .278 |
| 1985 | .950 | .792 |
| 1990 | .999 | .888 |
| 1995 | .438 | .397 |
| 1998 | N/A | N/A |
| SOURCE : International Monetary Fund. International Financial Statistics Yearbook 1999. | ||
of assessing the contributions of the informal economy. The CIA World Factbook reports exports of US$530 million and imports of US$460 million in 1998. The World Bank estimated 1999 exports of US$1.94 billion and imports of US$549 million, comparable to the Banque National du Congo's most recent figures of US$1.546 billion in exports and US$936 million in imports in 1995.
According to the CIA World Factbook, the country's primary export partners in 1998 were the Benelux countries (52 percent), the United States (14 percent), South Africa (9 percent), and Finland (4 percent). The Congo's primary import partners in the same year were South Africa (25 percent), Benelux (14 percent), Nigeria (7 percent), Kenya (5 percent), and China.