For the second consecutive day the price of the dollar against the Egyptian pound is witnessing a state of stability, in light of a state of expectation in a market suffering from a shortage of hard currency.
The calm state of the markets in the past couple of days comes after a series of leaps in the US currency against the Egyptian pound, in light of expectations of a further rise in the dollar, in the official hard currency market, or as the Egyptians describe it as the “white market”.
The price of the dollar in the central bank
The price of the dollar changed in the Central Bank of Egypt today, Friday, and the purchase price rose to 19.61 pounds.
While the selling price fell to 19.68 pounds, compared to 19.60 pounds for the purchase and 19.70 pounds for the sale, yesterday, Thursday.
The price of the dollar in Egyptian banks
While the dollar price in the National Bank of Egypt (the largest government bank) stabilized at £ 19.61 for buying and £ 19.67 for selling, which is the same price as yesterday.
The issue was no different in Commercial International Bank (the largest private bank in Egypt) and today, Friday, prices remained stable at around £ 19.63 for the purchase and £ 19.69 for the sale, which are the same prices as yesterday, Thursday.
Is there a dollar crisis in Egypt?
Egypt is suffering from a crisis due to the decline of the hard currency, with the decline of foreign exchange reserves, in light of the decline in revenues from tourism, and many other sectors.
Hard currency and dollar assets
In an effort to save hard currency, Egypt has decided to take many measures, in particular the rationalization of energy consumption in government buildings, streets and squares in order to export gas and benefit from hard currency revenues.
The value of the expected surplus of gas deriving from the rationalization of consumption is approximately 15%.
This comes at a time when Egypt achieved natural gas self-sufficiency in 2018, after natural gas production rates hit 7 billion cubic feet per day, according to Reuters, as China’s gas exports ‘Egypt reached from October 2021 to March 2022, about $ 5.6 billion.
In addition, the Egyptian administration is trying to support its financial situation through a loan from the International Monetary Fund, amid requests from the International Corporation for economic measures related to the exchange rate and support.
IMF loans and market control
In 2016, Egypt obtained a $ 12 billion loan from the IMF, then another $ 5.4 billion loan in 2020, before obtaining $ 2.8 billion to address the fallout from the Corona pandemic. .
According to an official statement, the Egyptian economy recorded in the following year 2021/2022 a growth of 6.6%, higher than that of the previous year, which had recorded 3.3%, suffering from the repercussions of the pandemic.
The Egyptian government is trying to control the markets, with the high rate of inflation reaching around 15%.
In light of the economic repercussions caused by the war between Russia and Ukraine, the Egyptian government implemented a package of measures to support citizens and provided exceptional aid to around 9 million families over a period of 6 months, worth 52 million. dollars.
