The deficit of the trade balance reached $2.34bn in January 2017 compared to $3.72bn in the same month of the previous year, marking a decrease of 37.1 %, according to the monthly bulletin of foreign trade statistics by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) on Tuesday.

The amount of exports increased by 27.1%, as it reached $1.82bn in January 2017 compared to $1.43bn in the same month of the previous year due to the increase of value of some export goods, such as crude oil by 95.4%, fertilisers by 19.4%, pasta and food products by 9.3%, and fresh orange by 0.3%.

The value of imports decreased by 19.3%, reaching $4.16bn in January 2017 after recording $5.15bn in the same month of 2016. The price decreases of some products explain that decrease: motor vehicles declined by 36.4%, iron and steel by 27.5%, plastics by 27.1%, and wheat by 23.5%.

However, import costs of some products still increased in January, such as crude oil by 143%, other petroleum products by 19%, grain by 20%, and medication and pharmaceutical goods by 2.3%.