Egypt's foreign trade records $37.56 bln in 5 months

Minister of Trade and Industry Amr Nasr said Egypt's foreign trade witnessed a remarkable growth from June to May 2018 by 12.5% reaching dlrs 37.562 billion, compared with dlrs 33.361 billion during the same period in 2017.

In a statement on Tuesday Nassar said Egypt's non-petroleum exports hit dlrs 10.966 billion with an increase by 15% compared with dlrs 9.512 billion in 2017.

A number of export sectors have witnessed a great improvement over the past five months including chemical industries and fertilizers whose exports hit dlrs 2.155 billion compared to dlrs 1.722 billion during the same period in 2017 with an increase by 25.2%, he said.

Exports of ready-to-wear garments hit dlrs 646 million against dlrs 575 million with an increase of 12.4%.

Construction materials exports reached dlrs 2.560 billion compared with dlrs 2.312 billion with an increase by 10.7% during the same period last year, he said.

Exports of electronic engineering commodities amounted to dlrs 993 million compared with dlrs 960 million with a 3.4% increase, while exports of agricultural crops increased by 6.4% reaching dlrs 1.264 billion, compared with dlrs 1.187 billion.

Egypt's exports to African countries hit dlrs 1.705 billion against dlrs 1.353 billion during the same period last year with an increase by 16%.

Egypt's exports to the European Union amounted to dlrs 3.068 billion with an increase by around 19% compared with dlrs 2.568 billion in 2017, he added.

The main countries that received Egyptian commodities from January till May 2018 are namely the United Kingdom, the United States, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Italy and Russia, he pointed out.