Trade

Use the dedicated trade domain for African trade overviews, partner data, product data, and trade flows, with aggregate trade metrics also available through shared data endpoints.

Trade Domain In Africa API

Africa API has a dedicated trade surface for country-level trade analysis.

Trade coverage currently comes from two layers:

aggregate trade indicators from world_bank_wdi
granular partner/product trade flows from un_comtrade

Granular trade coverage currently stores:

bilateral all-commodity partner totals
world-level HS chapter product composition

Use:

GET /v1/trade/overview/{country_code}
GET /v1/trade/flows
GET /v1/trade/partners
GET /v1/trade/products

The shared observation layer still exposes trade aggregates through:

Use:

GET /v1/indicators?category=economy
GET /v1/data?metric_key=trade_balance_usd
GET /v1/data?metric_key=exports_goods_services_usd
GET /v1/countries/{country_code}/profile

Country profiles now embed a compact trade section with:

latest_snapshot
granular_latest_year
top export/import partners
top export/import products

Useful Metrics

exports_goods_services_usd
imports_goods_services_usd
exports_goods_services_pct_gdp
imports_goods_services_pct_gdp
trade_balance_usd
current_account_balance_pct_gdp

Overview Example

curl "https://api.africa-api.com/v1/trade/overview/ng?start_year=2020&end_year=2024&top_limit=5" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AFRICA_API_KEY"

The overview response now includes:

yearly aggregate series
latest_snapshot
granular_latest_year
granular_years
top_export_partners
top_import_partners
top_export_products
top_import_products

For most applications, /v1/trade/overview/{country_code} should be the first call.

Partner Query Example

curl "https://api.africa-api.com/v1/trade/partners?reporter_country_code=ng&flow_type=export&year=2024&limit=10" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AFRICA_API_KEY"

Product Query Example

curl "https://api.africa-api.com/v1/trade/products?reporter_country_code=ng&flow_type=import&start_year=2020&end_year=2024&limit=10" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AFRICA_API_KEY"

Example Queries

curl "https://api.africa-api.com/v1/data?country_codes=ng,ke,za&metric_key=trade_balance_usd&year=2024" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AFRICA_API_KEY"

curl "https://api.africa-api.com/v1/data?country_code=eg&metric_key=exports_goods_services_pct_gdp&start_year=2018&end_year=2024" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AFRICA_API_KEY"