CAIRO, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's nonpetroleum imports declined 23 percent in the first seven months to 30.3 billion U.S. dollars from 39.4 billion dollars last year, a government report said Thursday.

Egypt's imports of ready-made clothes almost halved in the first seven months, standing at 221 million dollars, the state-run Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported, quoting a report by the General Organization for Import and Export Control (GOEIC).

The GOEIC, an authority directly affiliated to the Minister of Economy and Foreign Trade, is in charge of facilitating the flow of trade, supporting Egyptian industries, promoting exports and boosting Egypt's competitiveness in global markets.

The country's imports of leather products slumped 43.8 percent in the first seven months to 80 million dollars from 143 million dollars in the same period last year, the report said.

Egypt's imports of food, electronics and furniture fell 30.4 percent, 30.2 percent and 28.8 percent, respectively, to 3 billion dollars, 7.9 billion dollars and 802 million dollars in the first seven months.

The GOEIC report also showed that pharmaceutical imports declined 6.3 percent to 1.6 billion dollars from 1.7 billion dollars in the same period last year. Enditem

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