CAIRO — Egyptian economic observers have agreed that it is important for Egypt to start reducing the trade deficit by increasing exports and reducing imports.

Ahmed Shamseddine, head of research department at Egypt’s EFG-Hermes Bank, said in a press statement July 27 that the bank’s research shows that achieving the highest rates of economic growth and raising the standard of living requires reducing the trade deficit by half.

Meanwhile, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) published a report July 23 showing that Egypt’s imports from China rose by 11.9% in the first half of 2019 compared with the same period in 2018, from $2.2 billion to nearly $2.5 billion. Many pundits consider most of Egypt’s imports from China to be classified as luxury goods.

In early July 2019, CAPMAS estimated Egypt’s imports of wigs, mostly from China, to be worth 3 million Egyptian pounds (about $181,000), or about 7.5% of Egypt’s total imports from China during the first quarter of 2019. Analysts, however, believe that the real volume of Egypt’s imports is far greater than the CAPMAS figure, especially since the total trade of wigs worldwide exceeds $80 billion annually.