Egypt sets customs dollars at LE 16.25 in August

CAIRO – 30 July 2017: Egypt has fixed the customs dollars at LE 16.25 to the dollar starting from August, Minister of Finance Amr El-Garhy said Sunday.

The custom dollar exchange rate is less than the normal exchange rate, which records an average of LE 17.83 for buying and LE 17.93 for selling.

The instability of custom dollars following the flotation of the Egyptian pound late last year has prompted importers to ask the government to set the custom dollar at a fixed rate to avoid market and price instability.

Following the pound’s rally in February, the government fixed the custom dollar exchange rate at LE16, down from LE18.5, and it reviewed the rate every two weeks instead of monthly since then.

After the float, the value of the custom dollar had increased 80 to 100 per cent, and therefore the imports’ bill increased by the same amount.