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Egypt Imports
Two major trends occurred in the composition of merchandise
imports. The first trend was the decline in the late 1980s in the
value of capital and intermediate goods (e.g., industrial and
agricultural inputs). For example, the value of capital goods
imports in 1988 was 14 percent less than it was in 1985. While
capital goods and intermediate goods imports dropped in absolute
value, however, their share of total imports grew. Nevertheless,
the decline in the absolute value was likely to have an adverse
impact on the development of such sectors as industry and
agriculture.
The second trend was the continuous increase from 1979 to 1985
in the share of food and agriculture in the import bill. The
increase began in the 1970s, as the result of a combination of
population and income growth and the unsatisfactory performance of
agriculture. The trend persisted through the 1980s, until food
became the fourth largest item in the import bill. Not all the
value of food coming into Egypt, however, appeared in foreign trade
accounts, because a large proportion of the wheat came as grants,
especially from the United States. Hence, the import figures
seriously underestimated the value of imported foods.
Overall, merchandise imports rose rapidly after 1975, mainly
because of the big rise in world oil prices, which gave Egypt more
purchasing power, and because of the liberalization of import
policy. In FY 1983, an election year, merchandise imports
approached US$10 billion. The government subsequently reintroduced
some restrictions on private-sector imports. These measures,
together with the general scarcity of foreign exchange in
commercial banks, led to a leveling off of imports and then to an
actual decline.
The value of imports since World War II has consistently
exceeded that of exports, and a chronic trade deficit has marked
Egypt's foreign trade. The deficit nearly doubled between 1979 and
1985, growing at an annual rate of about 11.8 percent. The growth
of the deficit slowed considerably after the 1985-86 collapse of
oil prices and the concomitant drop in imports. In 1987 the deficit
reached about US$4.4 billion, and it climbed again in 1988 to
nearly US$5.9 billion.
Data as of December 1990
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