Egypt's foreign trade stands at $71B since pound's flotation

CAIRO - 27 December 2017: Egypt's foreign trade volume recorded $70.8 billion since the flotation of the Egyptian pound in November 2016, the Central Bank of Egypt announced Wednesday.

Egypt’s trade balance was one of the beneficiaries from the flotation of the Egyptian pound late last year. The move, resulting in the pound losing almost half its value, made Egyptian goods in foreign markets attractively cheaper, while doubling the cost of importing.

"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 announced in October.

Non-petroleum exports in that period increased 11 percent to register $15 billion, compared to $13.5 billion from January to August last year; while non-petroleum imports declined from $45.5 billion to $35.1 billion in the same period, marking a 23-percent decrease.

The country's imports in the first nine months of 2017 dropped by 20 percent to $39.880 billion compared to $49.740 billion last year, according to Kabil.