Egypt's trade deficit dips 14.6% to $2.88B in July

CAIRO – 12 October 2021: Egypt’s trade deficit lessened 14.6 percent during July 2021, recording $2.88 billion, compared to $3.37 billion in the same month of 2020, according to the state's statistics agency CAPMAS

In its monthly bulletin on foreign trade data, CAPMAS said exports hiked 31.5 percent to reach $2.94 billion in July 2021, compared to $2.24 billion during the same month of 2020.

The bulletin attributed the increase of exports to the rise in the exports of various commodities, such as: Plastics in their primary forms at 58.0 percent, pasta and various food preparations by 51.5 percent, ready-made clothes by 23.3 percent, and fertilizers by 17.7 percent.

Meanwhile, exports of some other commodities witnessed a decrease in July such as: fresh fruits by 5.8 percent, medicines and pharmaceutical preparations by 7.2 percent, soap and cleaning preparations by 1.0 percent, and plastic products by 9.4 percent.

Moreover, the bulletin showed an increase of 3.8 percent in the imports to hit $5.82 billion in July of 2021, compared to $5.61 billion in the same month of 2020.

It attributed the increase in imports value due to the increase in the value of imports of some commodities, such as: cars 41.0 percent, medicines and pharmaceutical preparations 34.2 percent, plastics in their primary forms 14.6 percent, corn 3.2 percent.

The value of imports of some commodities decreased during July 2021 compared to the same month of the previous year, such as: crude petroleum by 14.3 percent, organic and inorganic chemicals by 22.5 percent, soybeans by 36.7 percent, and meat by 35.3 percent.