The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has revealed that Egypt’s international reserves rose to $34.551bn in April 2023, compared to $34.003bn in December 2022, an increase of $548m.
According to the CBE, the value of gold listed in reserves increased to $8.031bn in April, compared to $7.326bn in December, an increase of $705m, while the volume of foreign exchange declined to $26.173bn, compared to $26.669bn, a decrease of $496m.
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The special drawing rights rose to $349m in April 2023, compared to $13m in December 2022, an increase of $336m.
The international reserves are the set of foreign assets owned by CBE which includes gold, foreign currencies, reserves with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and international investments. The currencies that make up Egypt’s foreign reserves include the US dollar, the single European currency, the euro, the pound sterling, the Japanese yen, and the Chinese yuan.
The Russian-Ukrainian war caused a record rise in the prices of commodities, grains and oil globally, which raised Egypt’s import bill, which made CBE resort to using reserves to cover these increases.
The IMF expected that the total international reserves in CBE would rise to about $80bn within five fiscal years.
The IMF documents showed that Egypt’s foreign reserves are expected to rise by the end of June 2023 to $37.1bn, then to $47.2bn by the end of June 2024, to $51.4bn by the end of June 2025, then to $63.9bn in June 2026, to rise to $77.8bn by the end of June 2027, then to $79.9bn by the end of June 2028.
