The Central Bank of Egypt said on Monday it was monitoring inflows from foreign investors that exceeded $925 million since Jan. 11.
In a statement, the central bank said Egypt has received $925 million in indirect investments in local debt instruments since Wednesday, noting a significant increase in the country’s liquidity in foreign currency, attained through the local market, Egyptian expats’ remittances and the tourism sector.
The Egyptian pound witnessed a sharp decline last Wednesday, to reach its lowest level in its history against most currencies.
The black market in the country has recovered greatly over the course of months as a result of the scarcity of the dollar, which resulted in the accumulation of products and commodities in Egyptian ports, causing prices to rise to record levels due to the decline in supply.
In its statement, the central bank said the new indicators represented positive improvements for the exchange rate in the country.
It highlighted the slowdown of the US dollar trading price against the Egyptian pound to post an average of EGP29.61 at the end of Monday’s transactions, down from close to EGP32 on Wednesday.
The central bank added that the banking sector has covered over $2 billion of importers’ and bank clients’ demands for the US dollar over the past three days.
For the fourth consecutive month, the central bank’s net international reserves (NIRs) rose by $470 million to record $34 billion, up from $33.5 billion by the end of November.
