The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said on Monday that the country’s foreign reserves reached $23 billion by the end of November, up from $19 billion in October 2016, state news agency MENA reported.
On 11 November, the CBE received an initial $2.75 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as part of a $12 billion loan.
Two days earlier, Egypt issued $4 billion in bonds in the Irish Stock exchange in an attempt to create new financing sources to plug the country’s widening budget deficit.
Egypt reached a staff-level agreement with the IMF in August over the $12 billion loan, as the fund endorsed the government’s fiscal reform programme aimed at curbing the growing state budget deficit.
On 3 November, Egypt’s Central Bank decided to freely float the pound and raise key interest rates to alleviate a dollar shortage.
Egypt’s foreign reserves registered $36 billion before a popular uprising toppled former president Hosni Mubarak in January 2011, leading to a period of political turbulence which undermined Egypt’s vital sources of foreign currency such as tourism and foreign investment.
Source: Ahram Online
