Cairo - Mubasher: Egypt recorded an 8.4% decline in its trade deficit in the fiscal year 2016/2017, data released by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) showed Tuesday.
The trade deficit reached $35.4 billion in FY16/17 versus $38.7 billion in FY15/16 due to the increase in merchandise exports by 15.9% or $3 billion to $21.7 billion compared to $18.7 billion in the previous period, as per the CBE.
The central bank highlighted that non-oil merchandise exports grew 16.2% to register $15.1 billion against $13 billion in the year-ago period owing to the improvement in Egyptian exports’ competitiveness after the liberalisation of the exchange rate.
Oil exports increased by 15.4% in FY16/17 to $6.5 billion against $5.7 billion in the year-ago period, while merchandise imports decreased by 0.5% to $57.1 billion versus $57.4 billion last year, which contributed to the decline in trade deficit, the CBE added.
Non-oil merchandise imports fell 4.5% to $45.9 billion compared to $48.1 billion in FY15/16, while oil imports grew to $1.9 billion.
The CBE’s data showed a $13.7 billion surplus in the Egyptian balance of payments (BOP) in FY16/17 compared to a $2.8 billion deficit in the previous fiscal year.
