The non-oil trade deficit widened by 6.6 percent to record $ 19.1 billion, due to higher non-oil imports according to recent data by the Central Bank of Egypt.
Egypt’s trade balance fell further into the red during 2Q2020-2021, reaching $ 10.6 bn as it widened 7 percent from the same period a year earlier.
This was mainly due to a fall in exports, which were valued at $ 6.6 bn during the quarter compared to $ 7.1 bn in 2019-2020.
Meanwhile, imports picked up slightly from last year, rising a little over 1 percent to hit $ 17.3 bn.
The country’s deficit widened 24 percent on a quarterly basis from the $ 8.6 billion deficit recorded in 1Q.
This was largely due to the country spending $ 2.5 billion more on imports in 2Q than 1Q. This is more than double the rate of widening seen between the first and second quarters in 2019-2020, a phenomenon that goes unexplained by the central bank’s data.
