Cairo – Mubasher: Egypt's balance of payments surplus fell by 7% year-on-year in fiscal year 2017/2018, registering $12.7 billion, versus $13.7 billion.
This was mainly driven by a 58.3%, or $8.4 billion, decline in current account deficit, reaching $6 billion, against $14.4 billion in FY16/17, data by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) showed.
Current account deficit fell as a result of the 98.1% hike in service balance surplus, as well as a 21.2% increase in remittances and trade balance deficit that settled at $37.3, according to data.
The CBE previously stated that Egypt's total balance of payments surplus fell slightly to $10.96 billion in the first nine months of fiscal year 2017/2018, versus $10.98 billion in the prior-year period.
The services balance surplus surged by 138.2% to $7.8 billion during the July-March period of FY17/18 from $3.3 billion in the same period a year earlier.
