Egypt’s balance of payments ran an overall surplus of $410.9 million in H1 2019/20 compared to an overall deficit of $1.8 billion in the same period in FY 2018/19, according to the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE).

Despite this, there was a deficit of $733.3 million in the oil trade balance against a surplus of $150.8 million recorded in H1 2018/19. This came as a result of a decline in crude oil and petroleum products exports by by $ 1.0 billion to $ 5.0billion (from $ 6.0billion), due to the drop in the exports of crude oil and oil products, despite the increase in the exports of natural gas

Additionally, suspending the imports of natural gas since Q2 2018/19 and the increasing imports of crude oil have resulted in a marginal decrease in oil imports by $79.7 million, recording $5.78 billion.

On the other hand, the petroleum trade balance deficit was stabilized in Q1 2019/20 at $606.2 million against $605.6 in Q1 2018/19.