The Arab countries collectively recorded a surplus in their trade balance during the past year 2022, thanks to the Gulf countries, led by Saudi Arabia, as they benefited from the increase in oil and gas exports and the improvement in non-oil exports.
According to the monitoring unit of reports in Al-Eqtisadiah, based on data from the World Trade Organization, the surplus in the trade balance of the Arab countries collectively amounted to $588.3 billion, compared to a surplus of $270.1 billion in 2021, with the surplus recording a growth rate of 118 percent.
The historical surplus recorded by the 22 Arab countries came after exports recorded a wide growth of 43 percent, compared to a 21 percent growth in imports.
The trade balance represents the difference between the total value of commodity exports and imports, as the surplus in the balance comes with the superiority of exports, while the trade balance deficit occurs if imports exceed the exported commodities.
The surplus came after the Arab countries recorded exports worth $1.72 trillion and imports $1.13 trillion, as the rise in oil and gas prices over the past year supported the values of exports, especially in countries that depend on energy exports.
Ten Arab countries achieved a surplus in their merchandise trade balance, while 11 countries recorded a deficit in the balance, while no information was available on Somalia’s merchandise trade.
Saudi Arabia has the highest surplus
Saudi Arabia achieved a trade surplus last year amounting to $222.1 billion, equivalent to about 37.8 percent of the total surplus achieved for the Arab countries combined.
The UAE comes second after registering a surplus of $173.9 billion, which constitutes about 29.6 percent of the combined surplus.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE come among the largest countries in the world in terms of surpluses in the trade balance during the past year 2022, while the combined shares of the two countries constitute about 67.3 percent of the surpluses of Arab countries.
After that, Qatar and Kuwait came with surpluses amounting to 97 and 69.5 billion dollars, while Iraq achieved a trade surplus of 53.5 billion dollars.
Egypt and Morocco have the highest deficit
Eleven Arab countries recorded a deficit in their merchandise trade balance, the highest of which was Egypt by about $36.5 billion, with about $49.3 billion in exports and about $85.7 billion in imports.
The data of the World Trade Organization indicated that Egypt’s imports grew by about 17 percent during 2022, compared to a growth of exports by 21 percent.
Secondly, Morocco came with a trade surplus deficit of about $30.4 billion, as exports grew at a lower rate than imports.
In third place came Lebanon, with a trade deficit of $15.1 billion, as a decline in exports and a significant rise in imports exacerbated the deficit by 63 percent.
Economic Reports Unit
