According to data from the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) BOP report released on Wednesday, the current account deficit narrowed by 45.2 percent year on year during the first quarter of FY 2025/2026—covering July to September 2025—to around $3.2 billion, compared with $5.9 billion in the same period of FY 2024/2025.
This improvement was driven by a 28.4 percent increase in net current transfers, which reached around $10.7 billion, as well as a 23.4 percent rise in the services surplus to $5 billion.
Remittances, tourism, and Suez Canal revenues remain among Egypt’s largest and most stable sources of foreign currency, supporting foreign reserves and easing pressure on the BOP.
Remittances from Egyptians working abroad continued their upward trajectory, rising by 29.8 percent to around $10.8 billion, compared with $8.3 billion during the same period a year earlier.
Consequently, Remittance inflows increased by 42.8 percent year-on-year in the first ten months of 2025, reaching $33.9 billion. This followed a series of corrective measures introduced by the CBE in March 2024, including a sharp devaluation of the local currency and a six-percentage-point interest rate hike, which narrowed gaps in the domestic hard-currency market and improved formal remittance inflows.
Tourism revenues rose by 13.8 percent to around $5.5 billion. Egypt welcomed nearly 19 million tourists in 2025, marking a 21 percent increase compared to 2024. The country is targeting 30 million tourists in the coming years and has launched new incentives and policies to boost investment across several sectors, including tourism. The cabinet also eased visa requirements last month to support the sector.
Suez Canal transit fees increased by 12.4 percent to $10.5 billion, compared with $9.3 billion in the previous fiscal year, supported by an 8.6 percent rise in net tonnage to 1.381 billion tons. The number of transiting vessels edged up by 2.5 percent to around 3,000, as shipping lines gradually returned to the area after avoiding it in 2023 due to Israel’s war on Gaza and Houthi attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea and Bab Al-Mandeb Strait.
The canal saw a relative improvement in traffic during 2025, particularly in the second half of the year, marking the beginning of a partial recovery in navigation activity, with conditions expected to improve further in the second half of 2026.
In contrast, several factors limited further improvement in the current account balance. The petroleum trade deficit rose by 22.3 percent, or $946.6 million, to around $5.2 billion, compared with $4.2 billion a year earlier. This increase was driven by higher petroleum imports, which reached $6.4 billion, including around $1.1 billion in natural gas and $3.42 billion in crude oil.
Petroleum exports, however, increased slightly by around eight percent to $1.3 billion, up from $1.2 billion the previous year, supported by a $31.6 million rise in natural gas exports and a $57.8 million increase in crude oil exports.
Meanwhile, the non-oil trade deficit narrowed by 40 percent, or $309.2 million, to $9.5 billion in the first quarter of FY 2025/2026, compared with $9.8 billion in the same period of FY 2024/2025.
This was due to a 24.1 percent increase in non-oil exports—around $1.9 billion—reaching $9.8 billion, driven by higher exports of gold, household electrical appliances, fresh, chilled or cooked vegetables, fresh or dried fruits, and ready-made garments.
Payments for non-oil imports, however, rose by around 8.5 percent, or $1.5 billion, to $19.3 billion, compared with $17.7 billion a year earlier. Higher imports were recorded for passenger cars, automotive parts and components, tractors, polypropylene polymers, and mobile phones.
Capital and financial transactions recorded a net outflow of $366.4 million during the first quarter, compared with a net outflow of $3.8 billion in the same period a year earlier, contributing to a $5.3 billion increase in banks’ foreign assets abroad.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) recorded a net inflow of around $2.4 billion, including $9.3 billion in net inflows into petroleum and mineral resources, of which $1.57 billion represented new investments by foreign companies.
Non-oil FDI also recorded a net inflow of $2.4 billion, including $520.2 million in real estate investments by non-residents. Portfolio investments reached around $1.8 billion.
The CBE’s securities portfolio recorded a net inflow of around $1.8 billion, compared with a net outflow of $384.7 million a year earlier.
Medium- and long-term loans remained stable, recording net repayments of around $1 billion, with total repayments reaching $2 billion. The CBE’s liabilities declined, recording a net outflow of $63.8 million, compared with an inflow of $115.2 million in the same period last year.
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