*Egypt’s finances were buffeted in the first half of 2024. The massive $35bn Ras el-Hekma resort investment deal with Abu Dhabi’s ADQ (MEES, 17 May) together with March’s $8bn IMF deal (MEES, 8 March) saw a whopping $21.6bn in net investment inflows. This boosted Egypt's foreign reserves to a record $46.7bn as of end-September, up almost $12bn on a year earlier. But at the same time the collapse in Suez Canal earnings and a record oil and gas trade deficit saw an $11.2bn current account deficit, also a record.
*Overall, the former outweighed the latter with Egypt recording an overall record half-year balance of payments surplus of $10.1bn, according to freshly-released central bank stats (see chart 1). (CONTINUED - 399 WORDS)
