STORY: Lower natural gas exports widen Egypt's trade deficit by 4.3 pct in May
DATELINE: Aug. 9, 2023
LENGTH: 00:01:03
LOCATION: Cairo
CATEGORY: ECONOMY
 
SHOTLIST:
1. various of CAPMAS
2. various of ships loaded with containers
3. various of gas field
4. various of wheat shipments at a port
 
STORYLINE:
 
Egypt's trade deficit rose by 4.3 percent to 3.74 billion U.S. dollars in May, compared to 3.57 billion U.S. dollars in the same month last year, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) on Tuesday.
 
CAPMAS ascribed the considerable decline in total exports to plunges in exports of natural gas (69.7 percent) and a surge in wheat imports (92.5 percent). 
 
Egypt's exports dropped 20.9 percent to 3.38 billion U.S. dollars in May, compared to 4.28 billion U.S. dollars a year earlier.
 
Over the same time period, Egypt's total imports declined by 9.4 percent to 7.12 billion U.S. dollars.
 
Egypt's trade deficit surged 23.8 percent in April over the same month in 2022, driven by a drop of more than 75 percent in gas exports.
 
Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Cairo.
(XHTV)