The governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) told the parliament’s economic committee that foreign exchange revenues from tourism has declined from $11 billion in 2011 to $3.4 billion in 2016.
Tarek Amer also said in the parliament meeting on Monday that the deficit in the current account of the balance of payments increased from $4 billion in 2010 to $20 billion in June 2016 which represented a danger which the CBE had to interfere to control, and that is why it took the decision to free float the exchange rates.
Egyptian exports also fell from $24 billion in 2010 to $19 billion in 2016, noted Amer, while imports increased from $49 billion in 2010 to $57 billion in 2016, this gap has negatively affected the balance OF payments.
Amer also showed the change in inflation rates from the late eighties until now, as the annual inflation rate grew from 28% in 1981 to 26% in 1991 to 23% in 2016, with the rate slowing down after floating the pound he added.
According to Amer, foreign investments in treasury bills went up to $10.2 billion from less than $1 billion in 2016, after freeing the pound exchange rate.
Source: Mubasher
