The Egyptian foreign exchange market witnessed enormous variations in the price of the US dollar on Wednesday, while the official value of the dollar at the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) fell by about EGP 0.02 for sale and EGP 0.06 for purchase.
Several government and private banks reduced the price of the dollar at the beginning of trading on Wednesday, ranging between EGP 18.8-19.39 per dollar for buying, and between EGP 19-19.85 per dollar for selling.
The dollar price recorded EGP 19.90 for selling at HSBC-Egypt and the National Bank of Greece-Egypt (NBG), marking the highest level of the dollar exchange rate in the Egyptian market. The dollar price recorded EGP 19.25 for buying at HSBC and EGP 19.15 at NBG.
The highest buying price of the dollar on Wednesday recorded EGP 19.40 at Al-Ahli Bank of Kuwait (ABK) and the Egyptian Gulf Bank.
On the other hand, the dollar fell to EGP 18.65 for buying and EGP 18.95 for selling at the Commercial International Bank (CIB), marking the lowest price of the dollar on Wednesday.
The dollar’s official value in the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) registered EGP 19.0924 for buying in Wednesday transactions and EGP 19.5416 for selling, compared to EGP 19.153 for buying and EGP 19.5605 for selling on Tuesday.
The decline in the dollar price is the first decline since four consecutive hikes took place on Thursday, when the dollar price jumped by EGP 0.58 for buying and EGP 0.91 for selling.
According to Tamer Youssef, head of the treasury sector at one of the foreign banks operating in Egypt, the demand on the dollar that has caused the significant increases of late is about to come to an end. He expects the fluctuations to settle by the end of 2016 when most companies have finalised their budgets and foreign companies have finished transferring their profits.
Youssef expects a gradual decline in the dollar price within the coming days after demand decreases, especially after the state obtains a loan worth $1.5bn from the World Bank and the African Development Bank.
