Higher gold and oil purchases increased Cayman’s overall imports in the second quarter, despite less spent on food and cars, revealed a report from the Economics and Statistics Office.
Geopolitical turmoil pushed up the value of Cayman’s gold and oil imports in the second quarter of 2026. The conflict in Iran increased global energy prices, which means Cayman spent $74.53 million buying petroleum products between April and June, compared to $54 million in the same period a year before.
International economic and political tensions were also behind the increase in Cayman’s gold imports. Most of Cayman’s non-monetary gold imports are made by Strategic Wealth Preservation, which stores gold bars for international investors.
According to the World Gold Council, US demand for physical gold bars and coins rose to 13.8 tonnes in the second quarter of 2026, up 28% from the year before. Increased investor demand to store a safe haven asset in a safe haven jurisdiction meant that both the global price of gold, and the quantity imported to Cayman, increased in the second quarter, compared to a year prior.
The rise in the amount of money that Cayman spent buying gold and oil in the second quarter helped push the jurisdiction’s overall import bill to $466.88 million at the quarter end in June. That was up 7.5% from $434.48 million during the same period in 2025, according to the office’s Quarterly Trade Statistics Bulletin April to June 2026.
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Food and car imports fall
But while Cayman’s overall import bill increased during the second quarter, there were falls in key sectors. Cayman spent $74.66 million importing food and live animals, down 2.3% on the year before. Moreover, the second quarter fall followed a 12.7% drop in the first quarter.
“You can’t read too much into quarterly statistics, especially when it’s a small drop,” cautioned regional economist Marla Dukharan. “Yet it’s notable that this trend has been sustained over two quarters.”
Dukharan also noted that it would require more detailed figures to establish if Cayman was importing smaller quantities of food or just paying lower prices.
Machinery and transport equipment is another sector that saw a continued import decrease in the second quarter. The value of these imports fell to $74.44 million, down 12.1% from the second quarter in 2025. That fall was driven by declining car and motorbike imports, which dropped 24.3% over the period.
“The car market is in flux right now,” said a well-placed source in Cayman’s auto industry, who asked not to be named. “You have new brands entering the local market, changing consumer tastes and also logistical challenges in bringing over cars from Jamaica. All of this means that new car imports are lower.”
The changing nature of Cayman’s imports impacted its interaction with regional trading partners during the second quarter. Trade with Mexico fell 52% over the period, with the report stating that “the reduced importation from Mexico reflected smaller purchases of road vehicles, as well as beverages,” while imports from the US, which is Cayman’s main supplier of fuel and gold, increased by 4.9%.