Egyptian and Saudi Arabian trade increased by 13.5% in 2022: CAPMAS

The trade exchange between Egypt and Saudi Arabia increased by 13.5% in 2022 to reach $10.3 billion compared to $9.1 billion in the previous year, according to a recent report released by the Cairo-based Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) cited by local news outlets.

The state-run agency released these figures on Monday, one day after Egypt's president Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi had commenced an official visit to Saudi Arabia where he met with the kingdom's de facto ruler, crown prince and prime minister of Saudi Arabia Mohamed bin Salman.

Egypt's top exports to Saudi Arabia in 2022 include copper worth US$ 246 million, fruits worth US$ 227 million, mineral fuel and oils worth US$ 215 million, iron and steel products worth US$ 201 million, and machinery and electric appliances that amount to US$ 167 million.

Egyptian imports from Saudi Arabia mostly include mineral fuels and oils for US$ 4.9 billion, plastics and its products worth US$1.8 billion, organic chemical products amounting to US$272 million, aluminium and its products for US$175 million, and paper costing US $109 million.

According to CAPMAS, the value of Saudi investments in Egypt amounts to US$ 491.6 million in the fiscal year 2021/2022, compared to US$ 325.3 million in the fiscal year 2020/2021, a 51.1 per cent increase.

The agency indicated that the value of money transferred by Egyptians working in Saudi Arabia recorded US$ 11.2 billion in the fiscal year 2020/2021, compared to US$ 9.6 billion in the fiscal year 2019/2020.

The report further explained that the number of Egyptians working and living in Saudi Arabia amounted to 4.4 million by the end of 2021.

Oil-rich Saudi Arabia has long backed the Egyptian economy but recently signalled it would cease to provide such support without conditions attached, which may have been recently the reason behind a rare media clash.

After the Russia-Ukraine war had a negative impact on the Egyptian economy, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar made deposits in the Central Bank of Egypt, pledging major new investments in the country. Yet these have so far been slow to materialise into economic gains.

At the same time, the Egyptian pound has already been struggling against the US dollar leading prices to hike.

In October last year, the central bank of Egypt imposed an exchange rate flexibility, allowing the value of the Egyptian pound to be regulated by market forces in a bid to save an already ailing economy after securing a US$ 3 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).