Remittances soar 40% in August: CBE

CAIRO – 8 October 2017: International remittances of Egyptian workers abroad hiked 40 percent in August, to record $1.7 billion, up from $1.2 billion in the same month a year earlier, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) announced Sunday.

In a statement, the CBE added that remittances, an important source of the country’s hard currency, grew from November to August by $2.4 billion (17.3 percent) to record $16.3 billion.

On November 3, the CBE floated the local currency with the aim of overcoming a sharp foreign currency shortage and a thriving dollar black market which squeezed the economy and discouraged foreign investors, exporters and Egyptian expatriates.

This indicates that the flotation has succeeded in attracting Egyptian expatriates back to transfer their cash through the banking system instead of the informal channels that had been active before the exchange rate liberalization.

For the past fiscal year 2016/17, remittances registered $17.4 billion, inching up two percent, according to initial data obtained by Bloomberg in August.