Egypt’s current account deficit widened to $7.6 billion in the first nine months of the 2018/19 fiscal year from $5.47 billion a year earlier, the central bank said on Thursday.
Net foreign direct investments narrowed in the same period, July 2018 to March 2019, to $4.6 billion from $6.02 billion in the same period a year before, central bank data showed, a figure mainly driven by investments in the oil and gas sector.
Egypt’s economy has struggled to lure back foreign investors and tourists since a 2011 uprising drove them away. In late 2016, it signed a $12 billion deal with the International Monetary Fund to boost growth. The three-year agreement is set to end later this summer.
The country’s travel revenues, one of its main sources of foreign currency, rose to $9.4 billion from $7.25 billion a year prior.
Remittances from Egyptians abroad fell to $18.2 billion from $19.4 billion in the same period last year.
The overall balance of payments registered a deficit of $351.2 million in large part due to a surplus of $1.4 billion in the third quarter from January to March, the bank said.
