(DNE Photo)
By Ahmed Amer and Raghda Helal
Automotive companies increased the prices of 50 cars at the start of this month, in addition to an increase in 58 car prices in April, in light of the dollar exchange rate increase crisis. Automotive prices have also been affected by the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) decision to limit the deposit amount to $10,000 a day and $50,000 per month.
Ghabbour Auto (GB Auto), agent of Hyundai, Geely and Mazda in Egypt, decided to raise prices for all car models, where Geely Emgrand 7 price increase by EGP 1,500 in April. The Geely Pandino and Geely X Pandino’s prices increased by EGP 3,000 in April, as well as another increase by EGP 1,500 at the beginning of May. The total increase for the cars is now almost at EGP 4,500.
On the other hand, Hyundai Verna’s price also increased by EGP 3,750 to EGP 83,600 in April and May, while the Hyundai Accent observed a price increase of EGP 3,590 to EGP 128,400. The price of the Hyundai I10 also rose to be at EGP 90,400, an increase of EGP 2,500 in April.
Ghabbour Auto CEO Raouf Ghabbour said car prices will witness increases in the coming period due to the decline in the value of the Egyptian pound compared to the US dollar.
Ghabbour added that sector workers cannot completely keep up with the increase in taxes in customs instead of the consumer, while pointing out that, at the start of the year, the dollar exchange rate was at EGP 7.12, while it is now EGP 7.65. This has to be reflected in a price increase, so that there would be a balance in the revenues of the sector workers.
Money exchange officials have said that major agents and automotive companies halted their investments in Egypt due to the dollar crisis in banks, and after the CBE’s decision limiting the deposit amounts.
They added that, previously, clients’ demands from automotive companies exceeded $1m, while the latest decisions by CBE led to a decline in the volume of demand and hampering the import operations.
