CAIRO, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's official statistics agency said on Monday that the country's exports to Nile basin countries reached 19.9 billion Egyptian pounds (1.11 billion U.S. dollars) in 2017 from 11.6 billion pounds in 2016.
In its annual report on trade exchange between Egypt and the Nile basin countries in 2017, Egypt's Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAMPAS) said exports to Nile Basin countries witnessed an increase of 72.1 percent in 2017.
The Nile Basin countries are Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Congo-Kinshasa, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Eritrea.
Egypt's imports from those countries hit 6.8 billion Egyptian pounds in 2017 from 3.9 billion Egyptian pounds in 2016, up 43.5 percent, CAMPAS said.
As Egypt's top importer among African countries, Sudan imported 8.1 billion pounds' worth of goods and services from Egypt in 2017 compared with 6 billion pounds in 2016, registering a 35.9-percent increase.
Kenya came in the second with imports worth 5.3 billion pounds in 2017, compared with 2.8 billion pounds in 2016, an increase of 88.4 percent.
With regard to Egypt's imports from those countries, Kenya topped the list with a total value of 4.7 billion pounds in 2017, up from 3 billion pounds in 2016, recording an increase of 57.2 percent.
Egypt has been suffering an economic recession because of political instability and relevant security challenges following two uprisings that toppled two heads of state since 2011.
The turmoil led to a decline in the country's foreign currency reserves, foreign investments and tourism revenues.
In addition to floating its local currency to deal with dollar shortage, Egypt started in 2016 a strict three-year economic reform program, including austerity measures, fuel subsidy cuts and tax increase.
