The Central Bank of Egypt revealed, in the Balance of Payments report, that tourism revenues rose by 43.5 percent to record US$ 4.1 billion compared to US$ 2.8 billion during the same of last year
The CBE said that this is mainly attributed to the rise in the number of tourist nights by 47.1 percent to 43.6 million.
There have also been rises in the number of tourist arrivals to Egypt by 52.2 percent to register 3.4 million.
Meanwhile, the report said that the Egyptian workers’ remittances went down by 20.9 percent to register US$ 6.4 billion compared to US$ 8.1 billion during the same period of last year.
Also the investment income deficit expanded by 16.8 percent to US$ 4.5 billion from US$ 3.9 billion a year ago.
The reported noted that an improvement in the current account deficit by 20.2 percent is the reason behind the register of US$ 3.2 billion, compared with US$ 4.0 billion in the same period of the preceding fiscal year.
This came mainly due to the increase in both tourism revenues and merchandise exports (oil and non-oil).
This is together with the rise in Suez Canal receipts, the report said.
The report said that the portfolio investment in Egypt recorded a net outflow of US$ 2.2 billion, against a net inflow of US$ 3.6 billion a year ago.
This exodus of investment reflected investors’ concerns over the Russian-Ukraine conflict, as well as the contractionary monetary policies adopted by the Federal Reserve
This led to the flight of hot money from the emerging markets, CBE said.
CBE added that transport receipts increased by 33.7 percent, to reach US$ 3.0 billion (against US$ 2.3 billion), as a main result of the rise in Suez Canal receipts by 19.1 percent to record US$ 2.0 billion (from US$ 1.7 billion), driven by the pickup in the net tonnage of vessels by 13.8 percent to record 372.7 million tons.
The deficit of oil trade balance stabilized at US$ 106.0 million.
This came as a main result of the surge in oil exports by US$ 807.3 million, on the back of the increase in natural gas exports by US$ 1.7 billion.
CBE said that such a rise was curbed by the decline in exports of crude oil by US$ 449.9 million and oil products by US$ 393.3 million.
Likewise, oil imports moved up by US$ 812.2 million, mainly due to the hike in imports of oil products by US$ 767.7 million.
