Cairo – Mubasher: Total external commercial operations executed since the flotation of the Egyptian pound and until the end of February have totalled $21 billion, undersecretary at the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) Tarek Fayed has said.
Around $14 billion of the sum were used to pay for procurement documents and letters of credit, while another $7 billion were used to open letters of credit, the official said, according to a statement released Wednesday.
In November 2016, the Egyptian government decided to float the Egyptian pound as part of an economic reform programme required by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which approved on 11 November to provide Egypt with a $12 billion loan on three years.
On 2 March 2017, a local banking source said that the CBE had approved the decision to allocate around $420 million to cover companies’ foreign exchange differences, which resulted from the flotation.
