Cairo – October 25, 2023: The UAE and KSA are reportedly planning to provide new deposits into the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), explained unnamed sources to local media yesterday. This supports earlier similar claims by other media outlets released last week.
The CBE could receive around $5 billion from the Gulf countries that will be converted into investments over several years, explained the sources.
Sources stated that there is a preliminary agreement in place, which will include the renewal of existing deposits provided by the two Gulf countries that are set to expire next year.
Gulf countries have deposited several billions into the CBE over the past few years, displaying regional solidarity during the past few years. Currently, the total volume of Gulf deposits to the central bank reached around $29.9 billion. In a September release, the CBE reported foreign currency reserves at $34.97 billion.
The UAE’s deposits to the CBE are reported at $10.7 billion - distributed between $5.7 billion long-term and $5 billion short-term - while Saudi Arabia has deposited $10.3 billion.
The Gulf deposits will come as Egypt places an emphasis on acquiring additional hard currency as it faces an FX shortage and looks for ways to reduce its external debt burdens.
Some of Egypt’s recent initiatives to bolster its reserves were a debt swap agreement signed with China last week, as well as a bilateral currency exchange agreement with the UAE and a debt swap with Germany worth €54 million in September.
The sources also told local media that there are several debt swap agreements in the works.
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