Egypt’s current account deficit climbed to $7.6 billion in the first half (1H) of the current FY2020/2021 — from July to December 2020 — up from $4.6 in the same half of FY2019/2020, according to data released by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) on Monday.
The increase in the current account deficit was owed to the decline in service balance surplus and the increase in the non-oil trade balance
Service balance surplus contracted by 69.9 percent in the 1H of FY2020/21 to post $1.9 billion, down from $6.3 billion in the 1H of FY2019/20 due to the decline in the investment income balance, according to the CBE.
As for the decline in investment income, the CBE’s data showed that tourism revenues dropped by 75.3 percent in the 1H of FY2020/21, reaching $1.8 billion.
For the non-oil trade deficit, the CBE said that it increased by 6.6 percent in the 1H of FY2020/21 to record $19.1 billion, driven by the rise in the payments of commodity imports, reaching $28.1 billion, and the increase in payments of commodity exports, reaching $9.3 billion.
The data also showed that oil trade deficit improved in the 1H of FY2020/21, narrowing down to $54.2 million, down from $733.3 million in the same half of FY2020/21.
On foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, the CBE unveiled that they fell by 32.3 percent in the 1H of FY2020/21 to post $3.4 billion, down from $5 billion, as a result of the decline in FDI inflows into the oil sector and the contraction of non-oil FDI inflows as well.
