03:19 PM
Wednesday, January 18, 2023
I wrote – Manal Al-Masry:
Two officials of large exchange companies in Egypt said that the movement of buying and selling dollars on the black market (the parallel market for buying and selling currency in an informal way) has stopped to some extent, in anticipation of the ability of banks to continue to procure green paper for importers and customers.
The head of a major exchange company, which has a geographical spread and is affiliated with a bank, added to Masrawy that the movement of customers to sell the dollar in exchange companies began to be active compared to an earlier time, but timidly, following the black market stopped and signs of the return of confidence in currency trading in banks emerged.
The price of the dollar on the black market is slightly higher than the official rate in banks, but no one currently prefers to buy or sell the dollar except following making sure that the green paper has reached its highest point of rise and begins its return to decline with the ability of banks to procure the currency for clients, according to the sources.
The Central Bank had left the price of the pound last Wednesday to witness a significant decline once morest foreign currencies, bringing the average price of the dollar from the level of 27.68 pounds for sale to regarding 32 pounds before it retreated to the level of 29.74 pounds at the end of the trading of the same day, which is the level around which most of the transactions of the following days were closed. .
These moves led to fears from major black market manipulators regarding the ability of banks to procure dollars to cover importers, and its depreciation.
However, the Central Bank of Egypt announced, in a statement last Monday, that it had monitored a set of positive indicators related to the exchange market in recent days, following the pound fell once morest the dollar and other foreign currencies.
The Central Bank said that these indicators include a significant increase in banks’ foreign exchange earnings through a number of methods, including:
– from the local market.
– The proceeds of remittances of Egyptians abroad.
inflows from the tourism sector.
– 925 million dollars from the entry of foreign investors into indirect investment.
He explained that this increase in the outcome led to several positive results, including
– A big boom in trading amounts in the interbank market during the past days, as trading amounts recorded an increase of more than 20 times compared to the recently recorded daily amounts.
– The banking sector covered more than $2 billion of requests from Egyptian importers during the three days preceding the statement, in addition to covering other requests from Egyptian bank customers.
Banks’ promotion of financial derivatives operations in the exchange market, with the aim of providing an integrated financial service that allows bank customers to hedge once morest the risks of exchange rate fluctuations.
The Central Bank indicated that foreign exchange reserves were recorded at the end of December, the highest level since May 2022, covering regarding 5.4 months of foreign imports for Egypt, which exceeds the measures of reserve adequacy according to international standards, following its increase by $ 470 million during December, to reach 34. Billion dollar.
