Egypt’s trade deficit widened by 87.5% year-on-year in February 2026, reaching $5.1 billion compared to $2.7 billion in the same month last year, according to the monthly foreign trade bulletin issued by Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) on Wednesday.

The report showed that exports declined by 11.6% to $4.2 billion in February 2026, down from $4.7 billion a year earlier.

The decline was mainly driven by lower exports of several key commodities, including fertilizers, which fell by 39.3 percent, plastics in primary forms by 16.2 %, potatoes by 16 %, and crude oil by 34.4 %.

At the same time, exports of other products recorded notable growth during the month. Petroleum product exports surged by 85.4 %, while fresh fruit exports increased by 49.1 %.

Ready-made garments rose by 8 %, and exports of food pastes and miscellaneous food preparations increased by 2.4 %.

Meanwhile, imports rose by 24.7 % to $9.3 billion in February 2026, compared to $7.4 billion in the same month of 2025.

The increase was largely attributed to higher imports of natural gas, which climbed by 56.2 %, raw materials of iron and steel by 11.6 %, wheat by 4.5 %, and copper and related products by 74.2 %.

On the other hand, imports of some goods declined during the month, including petroleum products, which dropped by 20.1 %, pharmaceuticals and medicinal preparations by 1.5 %, passenger cars by 1.4 %, and plastics in primary forms by 14.9 %.