Cairo – Mubasher: Egypt's Ministry of Finance (MoF) said it will raise the customs US dollar price to EGP 17 starting Thursday, 16 March 2017, for two weeks.
The price is an increase from its current level of EGP 15.75, according to finance minister Amr El-Garhy.
Customs will begin using the dollar at EGP 17 starting Thursday and until the end of March in accordance with the current trading price of the USD-EGP in local Egyptian banks, the minister told news agency Reuters on Wednesday.
Egypt last lowered the customs dollar to EGP 15.75 from EGP 16 on 1 March.
On 3 November 2016, the Egyptian government floated the price of its local currency against the dollar in accordance with the supply and demand mechanism in the market.
Before the flotation, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) was in charge of setting the price of the customs dollar.
The USD-EGP closed Tuesday at EGP 17.9488 for buying and EGP 18.0579 for selling, based on the average buying and selling rates announced by the CBE.
The customs dollar is currently being reviewed on fortnightly basis, once at the beginning of the month and once in the middle.
