CAIRO: The national balance of payment surplus surged to $2.9 billion from July to December of FY2006-2007 compared with $2.6 billion a year earlier. The upsurge of balance of payment surplus contributed to rising foreign currency reserves at the Central Bank of Egypt over the same period. The CBE said in a statement Wednesday that the bulk of balance of payment surplus came from the $1.9 billion surplus in Egypt s current account. The favorable performance of the services sector and increased net remittances of Egyptian workers abroad contributed to the country s current account surplus. The CBE, however, noted that Egypt s trade deficit edged up to $6.6 billion over the first half of FY2006-2007. Commodity exports grew 24.4 percent to $10.7 billion, while imports soared by 18.2 percent to $17.3 billion. Exports growth resulted from the upsurge in non-oil exports by 45.9 percent and oil exports by 6.9 percent, the central bank said. Natural gas exports were up 15.3 percent and crude oil exports increased by 8.6 percent. The CBE noted that non-oil imports surged by 26.2 percent, while oil exports decreased by as much as 19.4 percent over the first half of FY2006-2007. Revenues from the services sector increased 14.4 percent to $10 billion. Proceeds from tourism were up 9.1 percent to $4.3 billion and revenues of the Suez Canal surged 14.4 percent to $2 billion, the CBE said. Net remittances over the first half of FY2006-2007 recorded $3 billion compared with $2.7 billion a year earlier. Egypt s capital account also recorded about $7.2 billion of net FDI inflows over first half of this fiscal year compared with $3.3 billion a year ago.
