Egypt's foreign reserves up $170M in October

CAIRO - 5 November 2017: Egypt’s foreign reserves hiked to $36.703 billion at the end of October from $36.535 billion at the end of September, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) announced Sunday.

International reserves have been on the rise recently, reaching $36 billion in July and $36.1 billion in August. This came after they increased by $4.73 billion in June alone, bring them back to pre-revolution levels.

Foreign reserves in the CBE have been rising since the Egyptian government clinched a $12 billion three-year loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in November, restoring confidence in the Egyptian market.

Reserves were only $19.041 billion at the end of October 2016, just before Egypt floated its local currency in November, which was a milestone in the IMF-backed economic reform program that also included loosening capital controls, hiking taxes and slashing subsidies.