The hard currency crisis in Egypt has re-emerged during the past two weeks, after a number of government and private banks stopped opening new documentary credits or collection documents for importers, due to the scarcity of the dollar in the largest market in the region in terms of the number of consumers, according to 5 banking sources and two businessmen who spoke with East Economy.
Egypt has been going through one of the most difficult crises in terms of providing foreign currency, since March 2022, when foreign investors exited emerging markets following the Russian-Ukrainian war, and it did not succeed in reaching an agreement with the International Monetary Fund to obtain direct financing of $ 3 billion, within credit facilities exceeding $9 billion, in attracting large foreign investments to the country’s stock markets.
An official in an Egyptian government bank indicated that “the movement of currency management for import operations stopped again weeks ago,” requesting that his name not be disclosed due to the sensitivity of the issue.
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Another official in a private bank revealed that there is a “significant decline in the proceeds of waiving hard currency with the bank, and the interbank market has also stopped, and therefore there is not enough liquidity to finance import requests.”
The Egyptian government had released goods worth more than $15 billion from the beginning of last December until mid-February 2023, after the ports were crowded with goods that needed dollar appropriations for their release, which is feared to happen again if the dollar is not available to importers.
East Economy sent a text message to the Central Bank of Egypt to find out its opinion about the availability of hard currency for importers, but it did not get an immediate response.
While an official in one of the Egyptian ports confirmed to “East Economy” that “goods are not accumulated in the ports, but there is a delay in procuring hard currency for some shipments.”
