The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) announced Monday that Egypt's balance of payment totalled USD eight billion during the 2011/2012 fiscal year, compared to a surplus of $571.2 million in the previous fiscal year. The decline was attributed to reduced tourism profits and the current political atmosphere in Egypt and the region. CBE reported that the balance of payment deficit contributed to the decline in foreign currency reserves, which dropped to $15.1 billion from $26.6 billion in June 2011. Services account surpluses declined by 44.1 percent to $3.1 billion during the 2011/2012 fiscal year, compared to $ 5.6 billion the year before, following a services returns drop of 18.5 percent to $10.6 billion during 2011/2012, compared to $13 billion during 2010/2011. According to the CBE economic review report, tourism profits dropped by 27.1 percent, to $5.1 billion, compared to $6.9 billion during the previous financial year. Other services returns dropped by 33.5 percent to $1.1 billion on the back of construction service sector stagnancy and reduction in legal fees, CBE reported. On the other hand, profits from the Suez Canal witnessed a slight increase by 3.1 percent to $4.3 billion. With regard to capital and financial accounts, CBE reported that the 2011/2012 fiscal year witnessed an imbalance between inward and outward flows, resulting in net outflow of $2.8 billion. During the period between July and December of 2011/2012, fiscal year outward flow amounted to $3.3 billion, versus inward flow of direct foreign investment amounting to $4.6 billion, within the same period of the previous fiscal year.
