Minister of Trade and Industry Tarek Qabil said Egypt's non-petroleum exports have tangibly increased in January 2017 compared with the same month last year reaching 1.66 billion dollars.

Last year the figure was 1.327 billion dollars in January, he said in statements Sunday.

Egypt's imports decreased from 4.826 billion dollars to 3.626 billion dollars, compared with the same month last year which helped reduce the balance of trade deficit by 44%, he said, referring to 1.966 billion dollars down from 3.499 billion dollars.

The breakthrough in Egypt's foreign trade indices and the continued improvement is due to the ministry's plan to develop non-petroleum exports which has given a boost to all export sectors and reduced imports, he added