CBE: Egyptian Banks Abroad Balances Climb 88%

Balances of Egyptian banks abroad climbed to $19.2 billion by the end of November from $10.2 billion in April,  an official source at the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) revealed.

The source added that Egyptian banks' reserves abroad jumped during the period by $9 billion or 88.23%, despite the repercussions of the coronavirus.

Haytham Adel, head of the treasury and financial markets sector at the Industrial Development Bank (IDB) said that the surge in the volume of Egyptian bank balances abroad reflects the good management of the Egyptian banking sector, and the good proactive vision the Central Bank has taken to spare the banking sector from the repercussions of the current crisis.

Adel added that the reserves of Egyptian banks returned to their previous record rates, despite the current conditions, whether locally or internationally.

He emphasized that this reflects the success of the monetary policy and is one of the positive results of the economic reform program that Egypt has implemented since 2016.

Mohamed Maait, Minister of Finance said earlier that Egypt will receive $1.6 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by the end of this month as part of a 12-month Stand-by Arrangement (SBA), with total access of about $5.2 billion.

Maait added during the activities of the Egypt Economic Summit 2020 (EES) that Egypt will receive the rest of the SBA, amounting to $3.2 billion over two reviews, $1.6 billion each.

It is noteworthy that Egypt's foreign exchange reserves rose at the end of November to $39.221 billion.