It was recently announced by Tarek Kabil, the Minister of Industry and Trade that Egyptian exports have increased by 14 per cent during first 4 months of 2017.

According to the ministry as compared to 2016, the value of Egyptian exports reached $7.438bn in 2017. On the other hand imports have also decreased by 30 per cent to $15.931bn, compared to $22.742bn in 2016, thus reducing the discrepancy of the trade balance from $16.196bn to $8.493bn.

Minister Tarek Kabil gave the reason on both exports and imports stating that this happened due to the implementation of many reforms to achieve the goals of improvements in exports, as well as decreasing the imports in order to maintain foreign currency reserves, and to develop local industries, which led to more job opportunities.

He further explained that a lot of sectors have observed hikes in exports, such as agricultural products by 4.1 per cent, construction materials by 47 per cent, textiles by 4.6 per cent, food products by 3 per cent, and fertilizers by 34 per cent. The major markets where Egyptian exports targeted in the first four months of 2017 were the EU, the US, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Lebanon. The statement also read the Egyptian exports to the US recorded $381m compared to $370m, while imports decreased by 27 per cent and exports to Turkey increased by 54 per cent to $608m, while imports decreased by 43 per cent to $624m.

Egyptian exports for Italy recorded an increase rate of 23 per cent with $505m in 2017, compared to $438.9m in 2016, while Italian imports recorded $978m compared to $1.260bn in the same period, decreasing by 22 per cent.