Mohamed El-Atreby, chairman of Egyptian Arab land Bank (EALB) and member of the Federation of Egyptian Banks, denied that the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) used foreign reserves to maintain the value of the Egyptian pound. The foreign reserves were used to finance importing the main requirements of the country, he affirmed.
During a televised interview with CBC’s ‘Hona al Assema’ talk show, El-Atreby emphasized on the importance of political stability in achieving economic development as Egypt is receiving foreign loans worth US$ 14 billion till the end of June 2014 in order to implement the economic reform plan.
He noted that banks support SMEs, besides investing in treasury bills, referring loans and credit facilities offered to customers which rose by 4% in 2012. He added that the non-performing loan portfolio was reduced to 9.5% of the total value of the bank’s loan portfolio, down from 40% in 2004. Most of the finances offered by EALB are presented to real estate and tourism investments, he added.
