Egypt's trade deficit down 37% year-on-year in Jan: CAPMAS

Newspaper Title: http://english.ahram.org.eg

Newspaper Number:

Tuesday - 11 April 2017

Egypt's trade deficit dropped 37.1 percent in January compared to the same month in 2016, reaching $2.34 billion, the state statistics body CAPMAS announced on Tuesday.

In an e-mailed statement, CAPMAS showed that exports increased by 27.1 percent year-on-year in January, to reach $1.82 billion, led by crude oil, fertilizers and orange exports.

Imports for the same month slowed by 19.3 percent compared to January 2016, to reach $4.16 billion due to the drop in the imports of wheat, passenger cars, and steel and iron raw materials.

However, imports of crude oil, petroleum products and corn rose in January 2017, compared to the same month a year before.

The CAPMAS figures differ from statements made in early March by Minister of Trade and Industry Tarek Kabil that the country’s January trade deficit declined 44 percent year-on-year from $3.49 billion to $1.96 billion.