Remittances jump $400 million in Q4 of FY 2016/17

CAIRO – 27 November 2017: Remittances of Egyptian abroad hiked in the fourth quarter (Q4) of fiscal year (FY) 2016/17 to record $4.7 billion, up $0.4 billion from last years’ Q4 of $4.3 billion, Egypt’s statistics body said.

State transfers registered $66.5 million of this value in Q4, compared to $40.8 million in the corresponding quarter in FY 2015/16, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) said in its November monthly bulletin.

The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) previously said that remittances grew from November to August by $2.4 billion (17.3 percent) to record $16.3 billion.

For the past fiscal year 2016/17, remittances registered $17.4 billion, inching up two percent.

CBE’s Deputy Governor Rami Abul Naga said in October that the foreign currency collected by banks since floating the Egyptian pound in November last year increased to reach $52 billion.

The CBE had floated the local currency in November 2016 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.

The aforementioned numbers indicate that the flotation has succeeded in attracting Egyptian expatriates into transferring their cash back through the banking system instead of the informal channels that had been active before the exchange rate liberalization.