Foreign exchange reserves at the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) increased by $80m during October, to reach $16.415bn from $16.335bn in September, according to a CBE statement on Wednesday.
The process of rebuilding the foreign exchange reserves is the most important challenge facing Tarek Amer, CBE’s new governor, during the coming period. A large portion of the reserves were spent over the past year.
According to CBE, the current level of foreign reserves barely covers basic commodity imports for Egypt for about three months.
The value of gold included in the foreign exchange reserves is about $2.5bn, and the rest is in the form of liquidity, which is invested in global financial markets.
