The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) announced on Monday that Egypt’s foreign currency reserves rose by US$42 million in October to stand at $44.501 billion, compared to $44.459 billion in September.
Before the January 25 Revolution of 2011, Egypt’s foreign exchange reserves stood at roughly $36 billion. They fell to nearly $19 billion until a $12 billion loan was signed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in November 2016.
The flotation of the Egyptian pound and high interest rates helped attract foreign investments for government debt instruments, which reached about $23 billion at the end of March.
Egypt has expanded foreign borrowing in hard currency over the past months, to finance the budget deficit and to provide the US dollar on market, in an attempt to control the exchange rate and eliminate the black market.
