Imports
Imports are goods and services bought from other countries and brought to the country through different shipping methods. Imports are foreign goods and services bought by citizens, businesses, and the government of another country. If they are produced in a foreign country and sold to domestic residents, they are imports.
Businesses also imports products or services that are not found in their home countries or where they are based. For example, developing countries like Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique will be exporting cars from developed countries like the UK and other machinery that they can’t produce themselves in their countries. Another example of imports are the products and services of tourism.
When a country imports goods, it buys them from foreign producers. The money spent on imports leaves the economy, and that decreases the importing nation’s GDP, and this makes it not good for a nation to have more imports. So, this means If a country imports more than it exports it runs a trade deficit. If it imports less than it exports, that creates a trade surplus. When a country has a trade deficit, it must borrow from other countries to pay for the extra imports.
Imports also make a country dependent on other countries’ political and economic power. That’s especially true if it imports commodities, such as food, oil, and industrial materials. It’s dangerous if it relies on a foreign power to keep its population fed and its factories humming.
For example, most developing or African countries are so much dependent of products that come from European and American countries, and this makes these countries lose a lot of money to these foreign countries and a loss to the importing country. The other effect is that a rise in imports will, cause a depreciation in the exchange rate. A depreciation in the exchange rate tends to increase inflation.
Imports