Egypt's current account deficit at $5.6 billion

Egypt's current account deficit stood at $5.549 billion in the third quarter of the 2015-16 fiscal year that began last July, versus a deficit of $4.036 billion in the same period the previous year, data from the central bank showed on Sunday. Egypt's economy is struggling to recover after a mass uprising in 2011 drove away tourists and foreign investors, major sources of hard currency.
The trade deficit for the third quarter stood at $9.858 billion compared with a deficit of $9.159 billion in the same period a year earlier, according to Reuters calculations.
Foreign direct investment for the quarter rose to $2.772 billion in the third quarter, from $2.547 billion in the same period last year.
The services surplus increased to $177.9 million pounds from $159.3 million pounds a year earlier. Revenue from tourism, a major source of hard currency for Egypt, fell by more than 62 percent to $550.5 million in the third quarter from $1.458 billion in the same period a year earlier.
Egypt's tourism industry, a cornerstone of the economy and a critical source of hard currency, has struggled to rebound since the 2011 uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule ushered in a period of political and economic upheaval.
Egypt has lurched from crisis to crisis in recent months, straining the tourism sector and the economy as a whole.
The number of tourists fell 40 percent in the first quarter of 2016 compared to last year due in large part to the suspected bombing of a Russian plane carrying 224 people from a Red Sea resort in late October.
Islamic State said it had smuggled a bomb aboard and President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called the incident act of terrorism.
Then EgyptAir MS804 plunged into the eastern Mediterranean Sea en route from Paris to Cairo on May 19, killing all 66 people on board. The cause of the crash remains unknown.
The current account almost doubled in the first nine months of 2015-16 to $14.469 billion from $8.345 billion in the same period a year earlier, central bank data showed.
Net official transfers, including cash and commodities, rose to $28 million in the third quarter compared to $6.4 million in the same period a year earlier. Official transfers refer to money coming into or out of the country, such as grants. Saudi Arabia has pledged a $2.5 billion grant to Egypt which already received the first $500 million instalment in June. The United Arab Emirates allocated $4 billion to Egypt in April, half of it investments and the other half in the form a of a central bank deposit.