Egypt will implement an "urgent and solid" plan to secure the country's foreign currency needs and enable the economy to keep moving with some flexibility amid the current global crisis, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said on Wednesday.
In a press conference following the Cabinet's weekly meeting in the New Administrative Capital, Madbouly said the plan will run on the short term until 30 June 2023, which marks the end of the fiscal year 2022/2023, and on the medium term over the next two to three years.
The plan comes in coordination between the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) and the ministries, Madbouly said .
The premier did not give further details of the plan, saying that some of the state's steps must not be announced in advance.
"Some of the steps have to remain unannounced until they are implemented on the ground, because announcing them beforehand can have negative repercussions," Madbouly said during the press conference.
Within two months, the state will be able to resolve all problems related to letters of credit (LCs), Madbouly said, noting that the state is doing everything to restore a level of stability despite the crisis.
Late in October, the CBE had said that it will begin a process of gradually phasing out a February decsion that mandated the use of LCs for import finance as a way to control foreign exchange. The CBE said that the process was to end by December.
The CBE also announced in October raising the exception limit of LCs for imported shipments from $5,000 to $500,000, a decision that represented a step toward phasing out LCs.
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