Cairo – January 19, 2025: According to a recent report from the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), remittances climbed by 84.4 percent to reach $8.3 billion in the first quarter of FY 2024/2025, providing partial relief to Egypt's balance of payments (BoP), which registered a $991.2 million deficit.
Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade Hassan El-Khatib announced last week that remittance inflows saw an annual increase of 45.3 percent in the first ten months of 2024, rising to $23.7 billion compared to $16.3 billion during the same period in 2023.
Egyptians abroad are now sending significantly more of their remittances through official channels, driven by the flotation of the Egyptian pound, which eliminated the parallel market that had previously redirected much of these flows into unofficial avenues.
In its report, the CBE shared that the country’s current account deficit widened in Q1 of FY2024/2025, increasing to $5.9 billion, compared to $2.8 billion last year, attributed to a $6.1 billion expansion in the trade deficit and a 22.1 percent decline in the services surplus, which fell to $4.1 billion.
Mitigating the growing deficit alongside increased remittances were tourism revenues which was up by 8.2 percent to $4.8 billion, and a fall in investment income deficit by 7.2 percent to $4.3 billion (from US$ 4.6 billion).
On the financial front, the capital and financial account recorded a net inflow of $3.8 billion, bolstered by $2.7 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) and a $2.1 billion net inflow from banks' foreign assets.
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