Investing.com – The central bank appears close to winning its war against the black market, which is distorting the pound’s exchange rate against foreign currencies in the official market.
According to local media, the exchange rate has fallen on the black market, through which the Egyptian government criminalizes trading, by more than 35%, between a halt to effective implementation in light of a state of great confusion, days before the expected quotation, and days after the decision to return the work with the collection documents.
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Black market
Egyptian channel ‘Sada Al-Balad’ said the dollar saw a sharp decline locally in the parallel market, falling as much as 35% below £28, and sometimes reaching £25 after exceeding £38 earlier .
The black market has been confused in recent days due to intensive state measures, including the announcement of the International Monetary Fund’s approval of a $3 billion loan to Egypt.
According to the views of many economists and analysts, their expectations for the pound in 2023 concluded that it will see a marked improvement during 2023, and will not cross the pound 25 barrier after the intense measures taken by the state recently to provide a hard currency.
35% reduction.
According to one of the Sada El-Balad channel news reports, Egyptian journalist Ahmed Moussa said, “The black market has collapsed in general in different commodities and not just dollars, explaining that no one can deal in dollars in an unofficial market.”
Moussa added that everyone who speculated and traded dollars lost, and everyone who received a dollar a few days ago lost at least £14, a rate of up to 35%.
According to program sources, the price of the dollar on the black market has fallen sharply in recent days, falling from £38 to £25.
sterling officially
According to official exchange rates, and after the Egyptian pound fell by two points against the dollar on December 28, the pound has remained officially stable so far with no changes against the dollar.
Today, Monday, January 2, 2023, the price screen from the Central Bank of Egypt shows sterling record levels of £24.7861 per dollar selling and £24.7023 per dollar buying levels.
Today, Monday, rates in national banks, the National Bank of Egypt and Banque Misr, recorded levels of £24.71 in sells, and levels of £24.66 in buys.
In private banks, the exchange rate of the dollar against the pound recorded, today, Monday, an average of 24.77 pounds for sale, and levels of 24.74 pounds for the dollar for purchase.
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suspicious deals
The head of the National Bank of Egypt, Hisham Okasha, said that there is a state of confusion and confusion experienced by traders in the parallel market, which harms national interests, after the drop in the price of the pound on the black market.
Previously, adviser to former central governor, Hisham Ezz Al-Arab, and board member of Commercial International Bank (EGX): “Money is one of the means of monetary policy, and it is a means, not a goal , and added that the local currency is undervalued against the dollar by two pounds.
Systematic withdrawal
Over the last period, Egyptian banks have monitored withdrawals systematically and suspiciously, which has prompted them to take steps to set daily withdrawal limits, as well as a number of critical decisions.
Hisham Okasha, chairman of the board of the National Bank, revealed that there is a systematically repeated process, as $55 million was withdrawn in three months, and said that the transfer of funds through improper channels in violation of the law is a crime.
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central decisions
And through a series of decisions that came as a surprise, most of which, the Central Bank of Egypt has continued to crack down on the black market by issuing a series of decisions and directives:
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The Central Bank announced the cancellation of the decision to work with only the documentary credit system, issued in February, and the acceptance of collection documents for carrying out all import operations.
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– Central Bank mandated banks to procure foreign currency and open credit card and direct debit limits for foreign currency requirements for formation and processing purposes without maximum limits, upon customer request for such uses , and to provide supporting documents for that.
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-Egyptian banks have agreed to limit international spending on credit and instant debit cards for certain categories of merchants, including jewelry merchants.
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The Central Bank of Egypt sent a letter to the banks in case the proceeds of the gold export operations were not received within a maximum period of 7 working days from the date of dispatch, and after the bank followed the customer for only in the following 3 working days, must inform the Central Bank.
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The Central Bank of Egypt has stressed to banks the need to notify customers by any means of communication that the misuse of credit cards and direct debit cards is prohibited, especially for customers who do not leave the country.
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Banks have raised the commission rate on dollar cash withdrawals and purchases outside Egypt to 10% instead of 3%.
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Egyptian banks have decided to change the limits for foreign currency cash withdrawals on all cards, and to change the limits and restrict the use of the cards to some purchases from abroad.
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The Central Bank of Egypt has called on banks to verify foreign purchases for customers via their bank cards and to ensure that they have actually left the country during the times of the purchases.
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Exempting customers from all expenses and commissions relating to bank transfer services to private individuals, which are carried out via electronic channels (internet and mobile banking) in Egyptian pounds.
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– Exempting customers of the national real-time payments system – which was launched in April 2022 – from all charges and fees related to instant transfer services, as the system is one of the most important infrastructure projects for the systems payment processors sponsored by the Central Bank of Egypt to be an integrated alternative to cash payments that enables all remittance services to customers in real time, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.
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Cancel all the fees for activating electronic collection services via the Internet (E-Commerce) for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises wishing to activate this service, in order to motivate companies to expand the use of digital financial services.
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– Implementation of a new pricing policy for transfer services via the mobile wallet,
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Exempting all customers from transfer fees for the first transaction per month when transferring from any mobile wallet to any other wallet
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– Set a ceiling on the charges incurred by the customer for other switching transactions between mobile phone wallets belonging to the same service provider, so that their value does not exceed £1 alone. As regards switching transactions occurring between any two mobile phone wallets that are not affiliated with the same service provider, the price has been adjusted to a maximum of £15 per transaction.
