Arab trade in goods and services plummeted by 3.7 percent to hit USD 3.4 trillion in 2023 due to a 9.2 percent drop in exports to USD 1.8 trillion and a hike of 3.3 percent in imports to USD 1.6 trillion, said Arab Investment and Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (Dhaman) Sunday.

The Corporation explained, in a press release on the occasion of issuing its second quarterly bulletin “Dhaman Al-Istithmar” of 2024, that the drop in the value of merchandise trade by 7.2 percent to USD 2.61 trillion was due to the decline in merchandise exports in the region by 13.4 percent in 2023 to hit USD 1.42 trillion.

Arab merchandise imports grew by 1.6 percent to USD 1.2 trillion, while the surplus of the merchandise trade balance consequently dropped by 50.8 percent to hit around USD 232.1 billion in 2023, it said.

The share of Arab merchandise trade fell to 5.4 percent of the global total, and to 12.9 percent of developing countries’ total merchandise trade, it added.

In terms of merchandise distribution, raw materials of all kinds continued to make up the largest share of Arab countries’ merchandise exports by more than 74 percent, as fuel exports alone accounted for 58 percent of the total, it noted.

Manufactured goods continued to represent the largest share of Arab countries’ merchandise trade with a share of more than 63 percent in 2023, the Corporation added.

Four Gulf countries, Egypt and Iraq accounted for 78.5 percent of the total Arab merchandise trade, with the UAE alone having had more than 35 percent of the total, it said.

Arab countries’ trade benefits are contingent upon available opportunities of intra-Arab trade, and the countries’ ability to diversify their exports, cut their sectoral concentration in primary commodities, especially fuel products, curtail their geographical concentration in a limited number of business partners, and seek to open new markets, it added.

Based in Kuwait, the Arab Investment and Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (Dhaman) was established in 1974 as a multilateral institution that comprises all Arab countries and four joint Arab financial institutions.

Source: Kuwait News Agency