Egypt-U.S. trade falls 19% for first 8 months due to coronavirus

Egypt’s total trade with the United States fell 19 percent year-on-year in the first eight months of the year as coronavirus hits global trade, according to figures from the Egyptian official statistics agency CAPMAS.

Bilateral trade volume totalled $4.141 billion in the January-August 2020 period, compared with $5.116 billion in the same period last year, CAPMAS figures showed on Monday.

In August, bilateral trade dropped 31 percent to $395 million compared with $572.295 million in the same month in 2019.

In the January-August period, the United States captured 9.1 percent share of Egypt’s foreign trade volume, while the trade balance grew in the U.S. favour.

Exports

Egyptian exports to the United States went down 38.4 percent to $967.889 million in the January-August 2020 period, from $1.572 billion in the same period last year.

Imports

Egypt’s imports from the United States also tumbled 10.5 percent to $3.173 billion in the first eight months of 2020, from $3.544 billion in the same period last year.