Exchange department: 300% increase in dollar selling rate

CAIRO - 24 March 2022: Cairo Chamber of Commerce's Currency Exchange Department announced a 300 percent record increase in the selling of dollar and a hike in the selling of other foreign currencies over the past days following a decision of the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) and Banque Misr to launch one-year saving certificates with an 18 percent annual yield, after the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE)'s exceptional decision to raise interest rates by 1 percent.

 

In a statement to MENA Thursday, the chamber's deputy Ali el-Hariri said, dollar selling rates reached 300 percent, adding that most of the occurring selling operations by Egyptians are in large amounts as compared to the situation before the CBE's decision to raise the deposit and lending rates by 100 basis points each to 9.25 percent and 10.25 percent respectively on Monday.

 

Hariri noted that a large group of customers untied their dollar-saved bank deposits and bought Egyptian pounds to benefit from the proceeds of the one-year certificates offered by the two state-owned banks.

 

After the CBE's decision on Monday the US dollar trading price rose against the Egyptian pound to LE 18.1 for buying and LE 18.2 for selling, up from LE 15.6 and LE 15.7, respectively, the day before.