Cairo – Mubasher: Egypt’s current account deficit dropped year-on-year by around 57.5%, or $7.2 billion, in the first nine months of fiscal year 2017/2018, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said on Thursday.
The deficit stood at $5.3 billion in the July-March period of FY17/18, versus a deficit of $12.5 billion in the year-ago period, the CBE added in a statement.
This was mainly driven by a 138.2% surge in the services balance surplus and a 23.2% rise in net current transfers, in addition to a 1.3% increase in trade balance deficit.
The payment balance recorded a total surplus of about $11 billion at the end of March 2018, according to the statement.
It is worth noting that Egypt aims to achieve an economic growth of up to 5.8% in the next fiscal year.
The CBE previously posted a 63.83% year-on-year decline in current transactions’ balance in the first half of FY17/18.
