Egypt’s foreign trade rises 17% in nine months

The volume of Egypt’s foreign trade jumped 17 percent to $79.982 billion during the first nine months of the year from $68.332 billion last year.

Egypt’s trade balance deficit rose 22.9 percent to $36.762 billion during the January-September 2018 period from $29.912 billion during the same period in 2017, said the state-owned statics agency CAPMAS on Tuesday.

“Exports increased 12.5 percent to around $21.61 percent, compared to $19.21 billion last year,” CAMPAS said in a bulletin sent to Amwal Al Ghad.

Non-petroleum exports also climbed 13.2 percent to $19.762 billion, versus $17.449 billion. Meanwhile, petroleum exports rose 22.9 percent to $295 million from $240 million in 2017.

“Crude oil exports grew 2.1 percent to $1.553 billion against $1.521 billion last year,” the agency added.

Egyptian imports went up by 18.8 percent to $58.372 billion during the first nine months of the current year from $49.122 billion during the same period in 2017.

Non-petroleum imports surged 17.9 percent to around $53.386 billion, compared to $45.288 billion last year.

Crude oil imports jumped 114.4 percent to $2.866 billion from $1.187 billion, while petroleum products imports dropped 19.9 percent to $2.12 billion, versus $2.647 billion in 2017.