2025 at a glance
Sparklines show 2014–2025. Hover any chart for exact values.
Six things a decision-maker should know
Exports doubled, but Egypt still buys about two dollars abroad for every dollar it sells
How to read it: the orange line is what Egypt paid for imports and the blue line is what it earned from exports, in billions of US dollars. The shaded gap between them is the trade deficit. Dashed markers show the two currency shocks.
Show the numbers
Imports are concentrating on fewer suppliers, led by China
How to read it: each line is one country's share of Egypt's total imports (or exports, with the toggle). The five largest partners over the whole period are shown. A rising line means Egypt relies more on that country.
Show the numbers
Fuel now dominates the import bill, and gold has become a leading export
How to read it: each row is a product chapter of the Harmonized System (HS), the customs classification used worldwide. The hollow dot is its share of the total in 2014 and the solid dot its share in the selected year. A long bar means the product's weight in Egypt's trade changed a lot.
Show the numbers
Natural gas turned from a $6.9bn surplus into a $9.7bn bill in three years
How to read it: blue is what Egypt sold abroad and orange is what it bought, in USD bn. Where orange sits above blue, the product costs Egypt foreign currency. Use the toggle to switch between gas (HS 2711), refined fuels (HS 2710) and crude oil (HS 2709).
Show the numbers
The world's largest wheat buyer now gets most of it from one country
How to read it: each bar is one year of Egypt's wheat imports, split by country of origin. Switch to "USD value" to see the size of the bill instead of the split.
Show the numbers
Partners record more imports from Egypt than Egypt records as exports
Every shipment is declared twice: by the exporting country (valued FOB, at the port of loading) and by the importing country (valued CIF, including freight and insurance). Comparing the two "mirror" records is a standard customs-risk technique for spotting under-declaration, misrouted goods and classification errors.
How to read it: each line is Egypt's recorded value divided by what its partners recorded for the same trade (same partners, same year). 1.0× means the two sides agree exactly. The shaded band is the normal range for imports once freight and insurance are counted.
Largest disagreements in 2023 (flows of $1bn or more)
Likely causes, which this data cannot confirm: energy exporters often don't report destinations for petroleum and pipeline gas (Kuwait, Israel), and Gulf re-export hubs blur the country of origin (UAE). Each case needs a product-level mirror check.
Show the yearly numbers
Can these numbers be trusted?
Before any analysis, the pipeline tests the data automatically. These are the results of this build.
Show reconciliation by year
Where the numbers come from and how they were processed
UN Comtrade is the United Nations database of official international trade statistics. Each country's customs authority reports what crossed its border, by product, partner country and year. This dashboard uses Egypt's own reports (reporter code 818) plus every other country's reports of trade with Egypt.
Glossary
- HS code
- Harmonized System: the worldwide customs product code. 2 digits give a chapter (27 = mineral fuels), 4 digits a heading (2711 = petroleum gases).
- CIF
- Cost, Insurance & Freight. How importers value goods: the price plus shipping to the border.
- FOB
- Free On Board. How exporters value goods: the price at the port of loading, without shipping.
- Mirror data
- The same trade recorded by the partner country. Comparing both sides reveals reporting gaps.
- HHI
- Herfindahl-Hirschman Index of partner concentration, 0–10,000.
- Bunkers
- Fuel sold to ships and aircraft. Comtrade records it as a partner, not a country.
- "nes"
- "Not elsewhere specified": trade whose partner country was not identified.
Limitations
- Nominal US dollars. Values are not adjusted for inflation or for the Egyptian pound's exchange rate.
- Goods only. Services such as Suez Canal fees, tourism and remittances are not in Comtrade.
- Late reporters. Mirror data for 2024–2025 covers fewer partners, because some countries file late. 2023 is the most complete recent year.
- Weights unreliable. Within a year, every wheat origin carries the same USD per tonne, so the weights are estimates. Unit prices are not analysed.
- Non-country buckets. 0.5–3.3% of trade each year goes to Bunkers, Free Zones or unidentified areas. It counts in totals but is left out of partner rankings.