The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) on Wednesday announced that net foreign reserves increased by $52.1m at the end of August 2019 to reach $44.969bn, compared to $44.917bn in July 2019.
The net foreign reserves at the CBE have increased by $2.418bn since the beginning of this year.
Beltone Financial said in a report that net foreign reserves at the CBE covers almost eight months of imports, excluding major payments in 2019, which allows the CBE to meet the country’s operational needs, and supports the pound against the dollar.
Egypt has recently been receiving strong inflows of FX, which has pushed the dollar down against the pound significantly since the beginning of this year.
Governor of the CBE, Tarek Amer, estimated the volume of such inflows since November 2015 at about $200bn.
Fakhry El Fiky, a board member of the CBE, said that the value of foreign investments in government debt instruments during the period from January to May 2019 reached about $5bn, bringing the total to more than $17bn.
The CBE said that the value of foreign currencies included in the net foreign reserves declined by about $135m in August 2019, to $41.278bn, compared to $41.413bn at the end of July.
This came at a time when the value of gold reserves rose by about $265m at the end of August to $3.324bn from $3.059bn in July.
Special drawing rights (SDRs) in reserve fell by $76m to $367m at the end of August, compared to $443m in July, while loans to the IMF totalled $4m in August against $6m in July.
