CAIRO, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's non-petroleum exports have seen a remarkable increase of 15 percent year on year in the first quarter of 2018, Egyptian Minister of Trade and Industry Tareq Qabil said on Friday.

The exports registered 6.3 billion U.S. dollars in the first quarter of the year, compared with 5.5 billion dollars during the same period last year, the minister said.

Qabil's statements were based on a report done by the General Organization for Import and Export Control on Egypt's external trade indicators.

This increase has helped achieve growth in the volume of the country's foreign trade, which rose 9 percent in the same period to 21.2 billion dollars, compared with 19.5 billion dollars in the previous year, he added.

Qabil also revealed that Egypt's trade deficit improved two percent in the first quarter of the year.

Egypt has been facing economic recession over the past few years due to political turmoil and relevant security issues, which led to declining tourism and foreign investments amid growing budget deficit, inflation rate and foreign and domestic debts.

To face economic challenges, Egypt started in late 2016 a three-year reform program including subsidy cuts, tax hikes and full floatation of the local currency.

Egypt's economic reform program is encouraged by a 12-billion-dollar loan from the International Monetary Fund, half of which has already been delivered to the most populous Arab and North African country.