(Photo by Ahmed Al-Malky\DNE)
Around 42% of the citizens that purchased Suez Canal investment certificates relied on money they saved at their homes or shops, the Egyptian centre for public opinion research Baseera illustrated in its latest poll.
Baseera added that 38% used bank savings, 13% used savings they had at Egypt Post, and 4% sold properties they previously had, such as cars and gold.
Last Sunday, Governor of Central Bank of Egypt Hisham Ramez stated that EGP 64bn, $8.5bn, were collected within eight days of the certificates’ issuance, adding that the total value of purchases that came from outside the banking sector was EGP 27bn.
He mentioned that the CBE allowed purchases through Egypt post for two days, explain that around 25,400 persons purchased certificates and some EGP 730m was collected.
Baseera stated that 2009 citizens were surveyed, 53.3% from rural areas while 46.7% from urban areas and all above 18 years-old. Around 48.3% of respondents were male while the remaining 51.7% were females.
In Baseera’s poll, however, only 12% of the respondents said that they purchased investment certificates. The percentages of purchases in urban Egypt were higher compared to rural Egypt, with 16% stating that they purchased certificates in urban areas, compared to 9% in rural areas.
The research centre pointed out that 57.7% of the surveyed citizens came from lower classes, 29.9% were from medium classes, and 12.4% were from upper classes.
Ramez mentioned that the purchases of investment certificates divided by 82% for citizens and 18% for institutions. He added that a total of 70,000 people purchased the EGP 10 certificate and around 150,000 purchased the EGP 100 certificate.
The largest figure recorded was for the EGP 1,000 and its multiples.
During the first two days of their release, the certificates collected EGP 14.5m. On 9 September, this figure hiked to 28bn. On 14 September, the certificates’ sales registered EGP 49bn. Early 15 September, the governor stated that the certificates have collected EGP 55bn. Later that day, the collected figure grew to EGP 57bn. On 16 September, the CBE governor pointed out that the investment certificates were sold out.
The research centre indicated that the margin of error for its results is around 3%.
