Egypt’s trade exchange with Africa rises 4% in Q1 – report

Trade exchange between Egypt and African countries rose 4 percent to around $1.61 billion during the first quarter of the year from $1.546 billion last year, according to a report.

The surplus in trade balance was in favour of Egypt, amounting to $607 million, a recent bulletin by the Egyptian state-run statistics agency CAPMAS showed on Saturday.

In March, the volume of trade between the two countries dropped 5.2 percent to $539.596 million from $567.707 million during the same month in 2018.

Libya was on top of the list, seizing the biggest share of 14.4 percent with Egypt, amounting to $232.375 million during the first three months of the year, CAPMAS added.

Algeria came second, with a 17.4 percent share of trade with Egypt, amounting to $207.931 million, followed by Tunisia of 15 percent share, a trade volume of $184.842 million.

“Egypt’s trade exchange with Kenya reached around $147.323 million during the first quarter of 2019 against $182.657 million, marking a 24 percent decline,” the report read.

In addition, Egypt’s trade exchange with Sudan rose 12.1 percent to about $155.18 million, while trade with Morocco climbed 12.8 percent to $174.779 million.

The report added that Egypt’s trade exchange with South Africa surged 10.3 percent to $60.466 million, while trade with Ethiopia fell 12.3 percent to $43.664 million.

Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, and Sudan captured 59.3 percent share out of Egypt’s total trade with African countries.

“Egyptian exports to Africa climbed 9.8 percent to about $1.108 billion during the first three months of 2019 from $1.009 billion during the same period in 2018,” CAPMAS report said.

In March, Egypt’s exports to Africa increased to $381.115 million, compared with $364.038 million during the same month in 2018.

“Egypt’s imports reached $501.481 million during the first three months this year against $536.724 million during the same period in 2018, marking a 6.6 percent drop,” the agency said.

These imports also fell 22.2 percent to $158.481 million in March, versus $203.669 million last year.

Libya captured the lion’s share of the Egyptian exports to Africa during the first quarter.

The table below demonstrates the list of the biggest recipients of the Egyptian exports to Africa.

Country	Share of Egyptian exports in Q1	Annual growth/fall in %
Libya	$172.051 million	70.9 ↑
Tunisia	$157.539 million	30.1 ↑
Algeria	$151.176 million	1.7 ↑
Morocco	$118.352 million	0.7 ↑
Sudan	$104.134 million	21.6 ↑
Kenya	$82.885 million	7.2 ↓