Top Economic Indicators
The Arab Republic of Egypt (Egypt) is both a significant market and a strategic partner of the United States. Egypt’s growing population of more than 118 million (2025) is concentrated in Cairo and the cities of the Nile Delta. Exporters and foreign investors are attracted to Egypt’s large consumer market, heavy industrial base, manufacturing facilities, natural resources, and prime geographic location. Egypt is the top export market for U.S. goods and services in Africa, and the fourth largest export market for goods and services in the Middle East. U.S. exports to Egypt were $6.3 billion in 2025, up from $4.5 billion in 2023. This reflects a rebound from the economic crisis that Egypt experienced from 2022 to early 2024.
Egypt’s economic crisis was caused by both external and internal events – the wars between Russia and Ukraine, and Israel and Hamas negatively impacted Egypt’s ability to generate revenue from tourism and sharp decline in Suez Canal transit fees, while the devaluation of the local currency (non-convertible Egyptian pounds) and high inflation (16.8 percent headline inflation in May 2025 with food inflation at 11 percent) reduced Egyptian purchasing power in both the public and private sectors. The Egyptian pound is worth less than one-third of what it was worth in 2021, and the country continues to face foreign currency shortages.
Leading U.S. exports to Egypt include agricultural goods, oil and gas, transportation equipment, chemicals, machinery, and computer and electronic products. More specific opportunities exist in the digital transformation of all industries and the commensurate requirements for Cloud computing, cybersecurity, and ICT hardware and software. The Government of Egypt (GoE) embarked on an ambitious program of infrastructure development and decarbonization, producing opportunities in transportation and logistics, renewable energy, and grid management. Egypt is investing in large-scale solar and wind projects, including a 1 GW solar plant and a 500 MW wind farm, and aims to generate 42 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2030. While traditional fossil fuels, such as oil and natural gas, are still the leading parts of the extractive economy and dominate the domestic market, Egypt is pursuing more energy efficient projects as part of its vision for more green and renewable energy sources.
The Egyptian government and military play leading roles in Egypt’s economy. While a private sector exists, many commercial opportunities are routed through national government procurement tenders or through Egyptian military tenders. American companies that choose to bid on these tenders may be eligible to apply for U.S. government advocacy through the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Advocacy Center. The tender process can be lengthy and opaque.
Private sector partners, such as agents, distributors, and representatives, in Egypt tend to be reliable and operate in good faith. While inflation has eased from its 2023 peak, the hard currency shortage continues to result in payment delays. It is imperative that U.S. exporters have an open conversation with their Egyptian partners about payment options and establish clear understanding on the timing of payments. Egyptian companies that also export can more easily obtain U.S. dollars or other hard currencies to pay for imports. Due to the $1.3 billion in annual U.S. military aid to Egypt, there are many opportunities for American businesses to compete for foreign military sales in addition to direct defense and security-related products and services commercial sales.
The U.S. Commercial Service in Cairo, Egypt works closely with American businesses to identify opportunities, resolve issues, and advocate on American companies’ behalf.
Investment Trends
Egypt and the United States signed a Bilateral Investment Treaty in 1982 to promote and facilitate investment between our countries. Egypt and the United States entered into a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) in 1999. The agreement establishes a framework for expanding trade while resolving outstanding disputes between both countries. The TIFA is a natural step towards negotiating a free trade agreement. American firms are active in most sectors of the Egyptian economy, including oil and gas exploration and production, healthcare, transportation, financial services, manufacturing, construction, telecommunications and information technology, and the restaurant and hospitality industry.
The U.S. is the third largest foreign investor in Egypt with $3.2 billion invested in 2024. The United Kingdom and Belgium have been the two largest investors over the past decade with $7.1 billion and $2.4 billion invested in 2019, respectively. The total stock of U.S. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is nearly $25 billion, with $21 billion concentrated in the oil and gas sector. (Overall, nearly 70 percent of Egypt’s FDI goes to the oil and gas sector). For the fourth year in a row, Egypt was the top FDI destination in Africa and was the second largest FDI destination in the Middle East.
The GoE understands that attracting FDI is key to addressing many of the economic challenges it faces, including low economic growth, high unemployment, current account imbalances, and hard currency shortages.
The GoE also hopes to attract international investment in several “mega projects,” including a large-scale industrial and logistics zone around the Suez Canal; the new national administrative capital; a 1.5 million hectare agricultural land reclamation and development project; several petrochemical plants and refurbishing refineries; upgrades to the country’s ports, airports, and transportation network; and extraction of mineral resources in the Golden Triangle economic zone between the Red Sea and the Nile River.
Political & Economic Environment: State Department’s website for background on the country’s political environment.