The price of the dollar declined in Egypt, following it reached an all-time high once morest the pound in late trading, today, Wednesday. This comes at a time when the black market is facing heavy losses, as demand by importers and import companies subsided, following the government and the central bank moved intensively to provide dollars to importers through the official market.
The data seen by Al-Arabiya.net showed the rise of the Egyptian pound once morest the dollar, to record a level of 29.6 pounds in volatile transactions today, Wednesday, following it crossed earlier in the day the level of 32 pounds, to reduce its losses, to decline in today’s trading only by regarding 8%.
read more: Jefferies International: The demand for the dollar will remain strong in Egypt
And as part of the efforts of the Central Bank, it recently decided to raise interest rates by 300 basis points in conjunction with allowing the pound to decline once morest the dollar, followed by the government banks Al-Ahly and Egypt offering savings certificates for a year with a return of 25%.
And yesterday, Tuesday, the Commercial International Bank (CIB) in Egypt offered a new savings certificate for an 18-month period, with an annual return of 20%, to be paid monthly, or 22.5% to be paid on the certificate’s maturity date.
In terms of the exchange rate of the dollar, it was recorded in Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, at a level of 32.11 pounds for purchase, compared to 32.15 pounds for sale. In the Egyptian Export Development Bank, the exchange rate of the dollar reached 31.85 pounds for purchase, compared to 31.9 pounds for sale.
The exchange rate of the dollar at the National Bank of Egypt exceeded 31.65 pounds, and at Banque Misr, it reached the level of 31 pounds.
Since March of last year, the Central Bank of Egypt has begun to move intensively to contain the crisis of dollar scarcity. In order to narrow the gap between the exchange rates of the dollar in the official market and the black market, he announced 3 large reductions in the value of the Egyptian currency once morest the US dollar.
The beginning of the moves was during the extraordinary meeting held on March 19 of last year, when he announced allowing the dollar exchange rate to rise from the level of 15.77 pounds to regarding 19.64 pounds, so that the US dollar recorded gains of 24.5%.
As for the second reduction, it came at the end of last October, when it was decided to move the dollar exchange rates to the level of 24.25 pounds, to add new gains of 23.4% to the American paper. The last reduction was during the first week of this year, when the dollar exchange rates were moved to the level of 27.70 pounds at the present time, so that the dollar added other gains by 14.2%.
However, since the beginning of the movements in March of last year until today’s dealings, the exchange rate of the US dollar once morest the Egyptian pound has jumped by 75.6%, gaining regarding 11.93 pounds in less than 10 months.
But the whole crisis is due to the impact of the scarcity of the dollar on import operations. With regard to the file of goods stacked in Egyptian ports, data from the Egyptian Customs Authority indicate that goods worth $6.8 billion were released during last December. While the total value of goods stacked in Egyptian ports was regarding $14 billion.
This wave of releases caused the collapse of importers’ demand for dollars through the parallel market, which confused the accounts of merchants and speculators on the hard currency. The exchange rates of the dollar on the black market fell from the level of 38 pounds before the International Monetary Fund announced its approval of the financing package for Egypt, to the limits 30 pounds at the moment.
