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Investing.com – A long journey of suffering for the Egyptian pound during 2022 transactions, following two exchange rate swings, during which the Egyptian pound lost 57% of its value after announcing a flexible exchange rate policy.
According to data from the Central Bank of Egypt today, Sunday, the first trading of the new year 2023, the exchange rate is still at the same levels as at the end of last year, after losing more than 9 pounds against .
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pound now
According to official exchange rates, and after the Egyptian pound fell against the dollar on December 28 by two points, the pound recorded levels near 24.79 in the Central Bank.
The price screen from the Central Bank of Egypt today, Sunday 1 January 2023, shows that the pound has recorded levels of 24.7850 pounds per dollar in sells and levels of 24.7018 pounds per dollar in buys.
On Sunday, the exchange rate 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, exchange rates today, Sunday, averaged 24.77 pounds per dollar in sales, and levels of 24.74 pounds per dollar in buys.
Free day
And the Egyptian Central Bank decided to suspend the work of banks operating in Egypt and the Egyptian Stock Exchange today, Sunday, on the occasion of the end of the fiscal year for most of the banks in Egypt, and the Egyptian Stock Exchange announced, in a press release on the same day, which it was decided to consider Sunday 1 January 2023, the official public holiday on the Stock Exchange on the occasion of the Bank Holiday.
And the Central Bank said in a statement last Tuesday: “On the occasion of the end of the fiscal year for banks operating in Egypt on December 31, 2022, it was decided to suspend work in all banks operating in Egypt on Sunday January 1, 2023, provided that work resumes on Monday morning 2 January.” 2023
general losses
On January 1, 2022, the Egyptian pound, according to CBE data, was trading at £15.7786 levels per dollar for sells and 15.6517 levels for buys, losing about 57%.
On 21 March, following the adoption of the first floating decision in 2022, the dollar’s exchange rate against the pound rose to levels of 18.2884 pounds per dollar in sales and levels of 18.1519 pounds per dollar.
The price of the dollar has taken an upward trajectory following the decision to liberalize exchange rates on 21 March, moving from levels of 18.28 pounds per dollar to levels of 19.7673 pounds per dollar on 26 October 2022.
On the morning of 27 October 2022, the Central Bank of Egypt decided for the second time to liberalize the exchange rate, so that the dollar exchange rate jumped from 19.76 to levels of 23 pounds per dollar on 27 October.
The same thing happened that time, when the dollar took an upward path, moving from £23 per dollar on October 27 to levels of £24.7850 per dollar at the end of transactions on December 31, 2022.
Black market
Meanwhile, the black market tends to reappear and show its ugly face, affecting more and more imbalances and distortions in the Egyptian foreign exchange market.
According to reports from local and international media and newspapers, the dollar exchange rate rose to its peak to levels close to 38 pounds per dollar, an increase of more than 13 pounds compared to official rates.
turning point
With the receipt by the Central Bank of Egypt of the first installment of the loan agreed by the International Monetary Fund for a value of 3 billion, while the first installment was worth 375 million dollars, radical transformations began in the black market.
The exchange rate of the dollar on the black market has declined in the past two weeks, according to local reports and Arab and Egyptian media, from levels of 38 pounds per dollar to levels below 30 pounds per dollar.
Some Egyptian reports and channels tracked black market exchange rates falling to levels below £28 per dollar, while the pound was stabilizing on the black market.
Central fights the black market
And through a series of mostly surprising decisions, 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 shipment, and after the bank followed up with the customer for the next 3 working days only, he 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.
