Egypt’s foreign reserves record $39.22B by end of October

CAIRO – 3 November 2020: Egypt’s foreign reserves hiked by about $795 million, recording $39.22 billion by the end of October 2020, compared to $38.425 billion during September 2020, according to the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE).

This rise is the fifth in row for the Egyptian foreign reserves.

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.

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.