According to data collected from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Bloomberg, and Beltone research, the Egyptian pound lost a lot of its value during the past four decades.
Since 1979, the pound has lost approximately 98% of its value. Now, the pound can buy only 2% of what it could back in 1979, and is worth only 4% of the US dollars it could purchase back in 1983.
Aboubakr Emam, head of the research department at Prime Holdings, said that the pound always loses its value after implementing any reform programme, which means that the government always supports the pound.
He stated that during 2003, Farouk El-Okdah, a former governor of the Central Bank of Egypt, reduced the value of the pound after floating the national currency and Tarek Amer, the current governor, made the same decision last year when the government decided to borrow money from the IMF.
Emam noted that the exchange price of a currency “isn’t related to its power to purchase goods and services.”
He said that countries such as China and Japan reduce the value of their currencies, but they still have the ability to buy the same amount of goods if they are made locally.
The only solution to increase the purchasing power of the pound is to improve the local industry and raising exports, Emam added.
