Egypt's 9-month current account deficit at $7.3 bln vs $9.8 bln in previous year

Adds Suez canal revenues, remittances, details

CAIRO, July 27 (Reuters) - Egypt's current account deficit fell to $7.3 billion in the first nine months of the 2019/20 fiscal year to end of June versus $9.8 billion in the same period the previous year, the central bank said on Monday.

"The improvement was particularly pronounced in the January/March period of 2020, as the deficit declined by 39.2% to approximately $2.8 billion (from $4.5 billion during the same period in the previous fiscal year)," the central bank said in a statement.

In the January to March period workers' remittances increased by $1.7 billion to $7.9 billion year-on-year, it added. Suez Canal receipts rose by $84.4 million to $1.4 billion in the same period a year ago.

The non-oil trade deficit fell by $2.2 billion to $27.3 billion in the first nine months compared with the same period a year ago, the central bank said.

(Reporting by Nayera Abdallah, Ulf Laessing and Nadine Awadalla; Editing by Alison Williams and Steve Orlofsky)

((Ulf.Laessing@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: follow me on twitter @ulflaessing))

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