Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Foreign Currencies Stabilize Against Egyptian Pound


Sun 21 Jul 2019 | 09:55 AM
NaDa Mustafa

Foreign currencies exchange rates have stabilized, on Sunday, against the Egyptian pound. The US dollar registered EGP 16.55 for buying and EGP 16.65 for selling، Euro reached EGP 18.56 for buying and EGP 18.68 for selling، and the Sterling reached EGP 20.56 for buying and EGP 20.68 for selling.

The Japanese 100 Yen reached EGP 15.30 for buying and EGP 15.39 for selling, and the Swiss Franc reached EGP 16.75 for buying and EGP 16.85 for selling.

Noteworthy, Bloomberg highlighted Egypt’s inflation, pointing out that the Egypt’s pound had the world’s second-best performance against dollar so far.

According to data from the Egyptian statistical agency, the annual inflation rate for May was 14.1%, compared with 13% in April, i.e. inflation increased by 1.1%.

Jason Jackson, the senior economist at emerging markets at Capital Economics reported that rising inflation may not lead to an increase in interest rates, but it means that the central bank may refrain from resuming the facilitation cycle, as policymakers will want to monitor the impact.

Inflation in Egypt, Africa’s third-biggest economy, slowed to single digits for the first time since the pound was floated in late 2016. It had rocketed as high as 33%.

Later, Egypt’s administration explained that a devaluation was needed to ease severe shortages of foreign exchange and get a $12 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund.

Although the decision was painful for Egyptians, but portfolio flows into Egypt soared following the devaluation and the start of IMF-supported reforms, which included cutting subsidies that soaked up much of the budget and it got more foreign direct investment last year than anywhere in Africa, according to Bloomberg.

Gold prices:

The 21 carat is sold for EGP 647 per gram

The 24 carat is sold for EGP 739 per gram

The 18 carat is sold for EGP 554 per gram