Indeed, the pace of activity of the black market for exchange in Egypt has begun to decline during the recent period, as the pages that follow the movement of the dollar indicate that there is a large supply, in exchange for a limited demand for hard currency, and the surprise is that the price of the dollar once morest the pound offered is close to the average prices offered by Egyptian banks.
The exchange market in Egypt has witnessed major changes since the beginning of this year. Following the first flotation announced by the Central Bank of Egypt at its extraordinary meeting last March, the Egyptian currency declined by regarding 24%, following the dollar exchange rate jumped from 15.74 pounds to regarding 19.64 pounds at the end of last October.
read more: How much is the fair price of the Egyptian pound once morest the dollar?
However, since the second flotation at the end of October until now, the Egyptian currency has lost regarding 24.5% of its price, following the dollar exchange rate rose from 19.64 pounds to regarding 24.45 pounds at the present time.
With regard to the total price losses of the Egyptian pound since last March until today, it amounted to regarding 55.3% once morest the dollar, following the US green note rose by regarding 8.71 pounds.
In his comment, the economist, Dr. Hani Geneina, said that there is no indication yet of the stability of the exchange market in Egypt, especially since the crisis is related to the abundance of dollars in the Egyptian market.
In his interview with Al-Arabiya.net, he indicated that the name of Egypt has not yet been placed on the agenda of the IMF Executive Board meetings, which indicates the possibility of a delay in the arrival of the financing package agreed upon with the Fund.
On the other hand, the government’s offering program may be a differential axis. “If it is implemented quickly, we may witness the disappearance of the black market with the beginning of the second quarter of next year,” Genena said.
read more: An expert for Al-Arabiya: Core inflation in Egypt may reach 25%
In the context of regulating the exchange market, the Central Bank of Egypt began implementing a flexible or managed float policy since the end of last October. However, until now, speculation is taking place on the dollar in the parallel market, although its pace has decreased over the past days.
In parallel with the devaluation of the Egyptian pound, the Central Bank of Egypt announced the cancellation of dealings according to documentary credits with regard to the import file, especially following the accumulation of goods in Egyptian ports, which caused a shortage of a number of commodities. Documentary credits are scheduled to expire at the end of next December, according to the instructions of the Central Bank of Egypt.
A few days ago, the head of the Federation of Egyptian Banks, Mohamed El-Etribi, revealed that the rise in prices was due to global reasons due to the Russian-Ukrainian war, and all expectations indicated that the fair price for exchanging a dollar was at the level of 21 pounds.
He pointed out that banks began handing customers the dollars required to extract goods from the ports, pointing out that the decision to raise the interest rate was important at this time. He stressed the importance of curbing inflation, and this will be achieved by the recent decisions of the Central Bank of Egypt.
He explained that following the recent flotation, we witnessed an increase in dollar revenues in Egyptian banks, as the sums that banks used to receive from exchange companies doubled.
