Total foreign investment in Egypt in the first quarter of the 2009/2010 fiscal year fell to US$1.7 billion compared to US$2.8 billion for the same period the year before, according to a monthly report released Wednesday by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE).
The report also stated that Arab investment in Egypt had fallen from US$347 million to US$254 million for the same period, while investment by the US and the EU also fell considerably. Remittances from Egyptian expatriates working abroad, meanwhile, rose from US$1.8 billion to US$1.9 billion.
The report went on to note that the CBE’s foreign-currency reserves had reached US$34.2 billion, which would serve to cover 8.1 months of imports.
The report further stated that local iron ore production fell last November, noting that prices had decreased although sales levels had increased. Local cement production, meanwhile, increased by 4.2 percent for the same period, although local market sales decreased by 5.6 percent while exports had fallen by 15.9 percent.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
