Egypt's BoP deficit hit $3.7 billion in Jul-Sept 2015

Egypt’s current account deficit rose by 150 percent from July to September compared to the same period last year to register $4 billion driving up the shortage of the country’s Balance of Payment (BoP) to hit $3.7 billion from a previous surplus, Central Bank said in a statement on website on Wednesday.

The trade deficit was unchanged from the same period of the previous year, standing at $10 billion during the first quarter of the 2015/16 fiscal year due to more than 50 percent drop in oil price globally, which brought down the cost of petroleum imports (crude and products) by $1.2 billion, the CBE said.

The services surplus narrowed by 22.6 percent during the period to record $1.7 billion, affected by a slowdown in the tourism sector.

"This figure is largely traced to the fall in services and income receipts, especially tourism revenues which fell by 17.5%, to register US$ 1.7 billion (against US$ 2.1 billion) on account of the 9.1% drop in the number of tourist nights, from 26.1 million to 23.7 million nights," said the Bank.