Egypt eyes 9-10% rise in annual exports until 2020 – minister

Egypt targets boosting its annual exports by 9-10 percent until 2020, minister of trade Tarek Qabil said Sunday.

The minister added that trade ministry is to work to achieve this percentage at the end of 2015, but the he did not mention any details about ministry’s plan to increase the Egyptian exports.

During the first nine months if 2015, Egypt’s non-petroleum exports have declined 19 percent since they recorded US$13.884 billion opposed to US$17.2 billion a year earlier.

Qabil said that the drop in the Egyptian exports is due to the slowdown in the international trade movement beside the shortage in gas and dollar.

He clarified that Egypt faces a crisis in the hard currency after more than four years of political and economic turbulences.

This crisis was due a number of factories notably the shrink in the volume of Egypt’s exports as well as the decline in state’s revenues of tourism and Suez Canal, Minister Qabil added.