Trade exchange bet. Egypt, Arab countries reaches $1.7B in February

CAIRO – 29 May 2018: Trade exchange between Egypt and Arab countries recorded about $1.7 billion during February 2018, according to the state-statistic body.

The Central Agency for Pubic Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) said in its foreign trade bulletin that Egypt’s exports to 21 Arab countries reached $782 million, while the imports hit $1 billion.

Egypt’s imports to the Arab countries marked 18 percent of February's total imports worth $5.5 billion, while exports allocated 33.9 percent of total exports worth $2.3 million.

According to the bulletin, Egypt achieved a trade surplus with 16 Arab countries of the 21, recording $415.98 million.

The trade surplus with the United Arab Emirates marked the lion’s share of the total surplus, recording $146.06 million as the exports in February reached $198 million, while the imports hit $51.9 million.

The 16 countries are UAE, Jordon, Syria, Libya, Mauritania, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Oman, Tunisia, Algeria, Lebanon, and Morocco; Egypt also exported to Palestine, Comoros and Djibouti without importing from them.

Egypt’s exports to these three countries reached $7.143 million, $100,000, and $2.5 million, respectively.

In 2004, Egypt signed Agadir Agreement which is a free trade agreement between four Arab countries: Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia. The agreement which came in force in 2007 helped to enhance the trade exchange between these four countries.

It is worth mentioning that Egypt’s exports to Somalia rose in 2017 to $90 million, compared to $53 million in 2016.

Generally, exports recorded $22.4 billion in 2017, with an increase of $2 billion, while imports decreased $10 billion to $56 billion, compared to $66 billion in 2016.