page_title: Economy of Egypt
section_title: External trade and remittances
hierarchical_section_title: Economy of Egypt / Reform era / External trade and remittances
caption_attribution_description: English: This bubble map shows the global distribution of Egyptian exports in 2006 as a percentage of the top market (Italy - $2,496,220,000). This map is consistent with incomplete set of data too as long as the top producer is known. It resolves the accessibility issues faced by colour-coded maps that may not be properly rendered in old computer screens. Data was extracted on 18th September 2007 from http://www.imfstatistics.org/DOT Based on :Image:BlankMap-World.png
context_page_description: The economy of Egypt was a highly centralized economy focused on import substitution under president Gamal Abd EL-Nasser. In the 1990s, a series of International Monetary Fund arrangements, coupled with massive external debt relief resulting from Egypt's participation in the Gulf War coalition, helped Egypt improve its macroeconomic performance.
  Since 2000, the pace of structural reforms, including fiscal, monetary policies, taxation, privatisation and new business legislations, helped Egypt move towards a more market-oriented economy and prompted increased foreign investment. The reforms and policies have strengthened macroeconomic annual growth results which averaged 8% annually between 2004 and 2009 but the government largely failed to equitably share the wealth and the benefits of growth have failed to trickle down to improve economic conditions for the broader population, especially with the growing problem of unemployment and underemployment.
context_section_description: Egypt's trade balance marked US$10.36 billion in FY2005 compared to US$7.5 billion.
  Egypt's main exports consist of natural gas, and non-petroleum products such as ready-made clothes, cotton textiles, medical and petrochemical products, citrus fruits, rice and dried onion, and more recently cement, steel, and ceramics.
  Egypt's main imports consist of pharmaceuticals and non-petroleum products such as wheat, maize, cars and car spare parts. The current account grew from 0.7% of GDP in FY2002 to 3.3% at FY2005. Egypt's Current Account made a surplus of US$4478 million in FY2005 compared to a deficit of US$158 million in FY2004.
  Italy and the USA are the top export markets for Egyptian goods and services. In the Arab world, Egypt has the largest non-oil GDP as of 2018.
  According to the International Organization for Migration, an estimated 2.7 million Egyptians abroad contribute actively to the development of their country through remittance inflows, circulation of human and social capital, as well as investment. In 2009 Egypt was the biggest recipient of remittances in the Middle East; an estimated US$7.8 bn was received in 2009, representing approximately 5% of national GDP, with a decline of 10% from 2008, due mostly to the effect of the financial crisis. According to data from Egypt's Central Bank, the United States was the top sending country of remittances (23%), followed by Kuwait (15%), the United Arab Emirates (14%) and Saudi Arabia (9%).
caption: Egyptian export destinations in 2006.
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