Egypt’s foreign reserves reach $38.3B by end of July

CAIRO – 6 August 2020: Egypt’s foreign reserves rose by about $113 million, recording $38.314 billion by the end of July 2020, compared to $38.201 billion during June 2020, according to the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE). 

Since March, CBE has announced using foreign reserves money to cover the Egyptian market's needs of foreign exchange, the drop in foreign investments and international portfolios due to the precautionary measures taken to confront coronavirus.

Despite the decline in figures, the current average of foreign reserves covers about 8 months of Egypt's commodity imports, which is higher than the global average of about three months of commodity imports. 

Foreign currencies in Egypt’s foreign reserves include the U.S. dollar, euro, Australian dollar, Japanese yen and Chinese yuan. 

The main function of the foreign exchange reserve, including its gold and various international currencies, is to provide commodities, repay the installments on interest rates of external debt, and to cope with economic crises. 

On June 2020, the International Monetary Fund approved a Staff-Level agreement with Egypt on a 12-Month $5.2 Billion Stand-By loan arrangement. 

The $5.2 billion loan came after the IMF’s executive board approved $2.77 billion in emergency financing on May 11 to help Egypt grapple with the new coronavirus pandemic that has brought tourism to a standstill and triggered major capital flight.