India and Arab Republic of Egypt: opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation
The Context
Consistent with India’s new generation of intertwined economic and security agreements to facilitate its emergence as one of the major powers, India has invited President El Sisi of the Arab Republic of Egypt (henceforth Egypt), as a Chief Guest for the Republic Day celebrations on January 26, 2023. There is significant scope for mutually beneficial cooperation in international trade and in macroeconomic and fiscal management between India and Egypt, an influential nation of over 100 million people, straddling Asia and Africa, as explained below.
Mutually Beneficial Opportunities in International Trade
The global trade profile of India and Egypt for 2021 suggests the following. Unless otherwise stated, the data are from1
- India’s GDP of USD 3178 billion is considerably larger than Egypt’s USD 403 billion. But Egypt’s per capita GDP (USD 3539) and per capita trade (USD 653) is higher than India’s at USD 2097, and USD 423 respectively.
- In absolute terms, which is what is relevant and not ratios in assessing the impact of a country on global economic activity, India’s total global trade in goods and services at USD 1421 billion (exports USD 653 billion and imports USD 768 billion) far exceeds that of Egypt at USD 169 billion (exports USD 64 billion, imports 104.5 billion).
- India’s April-November 2022 global trade has touched USD 1110 billion. With four months remaining in the financial year, India’s global trade can be expected to reach between USD 1500 billion and USD 1600 billion, impacting global economic activity significantly.