In its statement on the release of the balance of payments performance over the nine months from July 2021 to March 2022, the CBE noted Egypt's tourism revenue rose by $5.1 billion to $8.2 billion over the corresponding period the previous year.

The increase came despite the fact that Egypt was negatively affected by the absence of Russian and Ukrainian tourists since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war in February

It also added that the transport receipts increased by 27.8 percent to reach $7 billion (against $5 billion in the same period last year) mainly due to the rise in Suez Canal receipts by 16.9 percent to $5.1 billion from $4.3 billion in that period.

Workers’ remittances rose slightly by 1.1 percent to reach $23.6 billion against $23.4 billion in the corresponding period in the past fiscal year.

Meanwhile as for capital and financial accounts, the net inflows declined by 36.6 percent in July/March of FY 2021/2022 to only $10.8 billion compared to $17.1 billion in the corresponding period the previous year.

The portfolio investment in Egypt shifted from a net inflow of $16 billion to a net outflow of $17.2 billion, mainly during January-March 2022 which witnessed alone a net outflow of $14.8 billion.

According to the CBE, this reflected investors’ concern over the Russian invasion of Ukraine and fears of potential escalation as well as the contractionary monetary policies adopted by the Federal Reserve leading to outflow of hot money from emerging markets.

The net foreign direct investment (net FDI) in Egypt rose by 53.5 percent to $7.3 billion where net FDI in non-oil sectors mounted by $3.9 billion, to record a net inflow of $9.0 billion (of which $4.6 billion was registered in January-March 2022).

Meanwhile, FDI in the oil sector registered net outflows of $1.7 billion (against just $322.5 million in the corresponding period the previous year).