Egyptian expats remittances increase by 21.1% during 2017/2018 FY

CAIRO – 31 August 2018: Remittances from Egyptian expats increased by about $4.6 billion (21.1 percent) during fiscal year 2017/2018, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said on Thursday.

This increase helped achieve a new and unprecedented record amounting to about $26.5 billion compared to $21.9 billion in the same period during the previous year, CBE data showed.

In the period from June to April 2017/2018, remittances jumped with 16.1 percent to stand at $7.0 billion, compared to $6.0 billion in the same period during the previous year.

On July 9, CBE announced that remittances from Egyptian expatriates rose by 41.2 percent year-on-year in April 2018 to stand at $2.3 billion, compared to $1.7 billion in April 2017. CBE data also showed that in the period from July 2017 to April 2018, remittances jumped 48.2 percent year-on-year to reach a record of $26 billion, compared to $17.5 billion in the same period of the previous year.

In February 2018, remittances from Egyptian expats rose by 11.6 percent year-on-year to stand at $2 billion, compared to $1.8 billion in February 2017.

Remittances from expatriate Egyptians increased to $26.4 billion since floating the Egyptian pound in November 2016 and until November 2017, compared to $22.3 billion in the same period a year earlier, previous data showed.

Remittances are one of Egypt’s main foreign currency sources, which have been on the rise since Egypt floated its local currency in November 2016.