Trade deficit narrows by 26.4% YoY during first 9M of 2023, media reports

Cairo – October 31, 2023: Egypt’s trade balance deficit plummeted by 26.4 percent year-on-year (YoY), falling to $27.4 billion during the first nine months of 2023, revealed a report by regional media citing a source-provided document.

Citing an unnamed government official, exports decreased due to a shortage of raw materials needed for production driven by foreign currency issues, which also drove imports down due to complications in releasing goods from ports.

The source attributed the deficit’s decline to the country’s woes with foreign currency, leading to exports dropping by 3 percent to record $26.2 billion.

Egyptian imports fell by 17 percent YoY during the January-September months to $53.6 billion. The source stated that the ports are congested with goods, lacking the ability to release them into the local market.

The government implemented several initiatives to improve Egypt’s foreign reserves, including the accelerated sales of several state-owned assets to investors. The Ministry of Finance recently revealed that Egypt has procured up to $2.5 billion due to the stake sales, as the country works towards collecting an additional $5 billion in hard cash through its privatization reforms between October 2023 and June 2024.

Officially, the trade deficit fell by 23.59 percent in FY2022/2023, driven by a significant decline in non-oil imports, to $33.16 billion from $43.39 billion in FY2021/2022.

According to a report by the central bank released in early October, Egyptian exports saw a 9.7 percent drop to $39.62 billion YoY with imports declining by 18.92 percent to $70.78 billion.