RIYADH: The value of Egyptian exports to Lebanon saw a 43.8 percent year-on-year surge in 2024 to reach $762.8 million, according to new figures.

Data from Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics also showed that imports from the Middle Eastern country declined by 2.3 percent, totaling $237.7 million during the same period.

These shifts in trade come amid broader economic trends. The region’s gross domestic product grew by 1.8 percent in 2024, reaching $3.6 trillion despite ongoing challenges, according to a March report by the Arab Investment and Export Credit Guarantee Corporation, or Dhaman.

Looking ahead, this economic momentum appears set to continue. Moody’s projects 2.9 percent growth for the region in 2025, up from 2.1 percent in 2024, while maintaining a stable outlook for the region’s sovereign credit fundamentals over the next 12 months.

The newly released CAPMAS report revealed there was “an increase in the value of trade exchange between Egypt and Lebanon, reaching $1 billion in 2024, compared to $774 million in 2023, an increase of 29.3 percent.”

The main export groups of goods to Lebanon during 2024 included fuels, mineral oils, and distillation products worth $215 million, iron and iron products worth $65 million, and cement worth $55 million.

The value of fruits and vegetable exports stood at $48 million, while sugar and sugar products were worth $41 million. 

As for the main import groups of goods from Lebanon during the same year, they entailed iron and iron products worth $118 million, fruits and vegetables worth $72 million, and electrical appliances and equipment worth $22 million.

The value of plastics imports stood at $4 million, while dyeing and coating extracts were also worth $4 million.

The CAPMAS data also shed light on how the value of Lebanese investments in Egypt amounted to $51.2 million during the fiscal year 2023/2024, compared to $51.4 million during the fiscal year 2022/2023.

Egyptian investments in Lebanon amounted to $9.7 million during the fiscal year 2023/2024, compared to $7.9 million during the fiscal year 2022/2023.

“The value of remittances from Egyptians working in Lebanon amounted to $42.9 million during the fiscal year 2023/2024, compared to $38.1 million during the fiscal year 2022/2023, while the value of remittances from Lebanese working in Egypt amounted to $3.5 million during the fiscal year 2022/2023, compared to $3.7 million during the fiscal year 2022/2023,” the CAPMAS report added.

According to estimates, the number of Egyptians residing in Lebanon reached 11,300 by the end of 2023, the report concluded.

DOHA: The head of the Kuwait Investment Authority, which manages almost $1 trillion in assets, said the sovereign wealth fund is committed to investing in the US and that investors cut allocations to US assets at their own risk.
Some global investors have ditched US assets in recent weeks on fears that US President Donald Trump’s overhaul of global trade may hurt the US economy, and could cause deeper long-term damage.
The trend looks set to continue, given that a record number of managers have said they plan to keep cutting their exposure to US assets, according to BofA research.

Kuwait has been investing in the US market for a “long time” and that “won’t change,” KIA Managing Director Sheikh Saoud Salem Abdulaziz Al-Sabah said at an investment conference in the Qatari capital on Wednesday.
“I would say it very bluntly, underweight America at your own risk,” he said.
Last week, Moody’s downgraded the US sovereign credit rating by one notch, citing concerns about the nation’s growing $36 trillion debt pile, which could make investors more cautious and drive up borrowing costs across the economy.
“They (investors) are merely looking at equity markets, but they’re not taking into fact the US has the largest fixed income market, the US has the largest private equity market, the real estate market, infrastructure and credit,” Al-Sabah said.
“I think the US has the breadth and depth to sustain its exceptionalism and it has the rule of law as well,” he said.