Commodity imports drop 15.7% in 8 months

CAIRO – 18 October 2017: The import bill of food commodities declined 15.7 percent in the first eight months of 2017 to $4.79 billion, compared with $5.68 billion in the same period last year, according to the monthly bulletin of the General Organization for Export & Import Control (GOEIC) released Wednesday.

Supply commodities include 15 food items, representing 16 percent of Egypt’s non-oil imports, which registered $35.1 billion from January to August 2017.

The biggest decline was in imports of meat, which decreased 48 percent to $411.4 million, compared to $797.1 million in the same period last year. This was followed by beans’ imports that fell 44 percent to $110.7 million, compared with $198 million in the corresponding period of 2016.

The deficit in the trade balance slumped $12.23 billion (37 percent) in the first eight months of 2017, to stand at $20.1 billion compared to $32.4 billion in the same period in 2016, Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade Tarek Kabil said last week.

Non-petroleum exports in that period increased 11 percent to $15 billion, compared with $13.5 billion from January to August last year, Kabil added.

Meanwhile, non-petroleum imports declined 23 percent from $45.5 billion to $35.1 billion in the same period, marking a 23 percent decrease.