Banque Misr Chair: Remittances from Egyptians abroad grow 10-fold
As Egypt enforced exchange rate reforms, signed landmark multi-billion agreements, and received the thumbs up from international financial institutions, Banque Misr’s chairman Mohamed El-Etreby announced on Wednesday that Egyptian expatriates are flocking to use official money transfer channels.
El-Etreby explained that the historic Ras Al-Hekma development agreement and the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) recent bold measures to ensure more flexible exchange rates and curb inflation levels – are fuelling a boom for Egypt’s remittance receipts and foreign investments in the treasury bills and bonds.
Remittances from Egyptians abroad have grown more than ten-fold, with customers rushing to sell dollars at Banque Misr’s Misr Exchange more than ever, marking around 20-fold rise, he noted. “This has propelled the bank (Banque Misr) to end the waiting lists of clients demanded foreign currency – during the past few days.” El-Etreby said.
Meanwhile, BM chairman emphasised that the CBE’s recent bold actions have ensured greater stability in the foreign exchange market and caused a marked shift in the international institutions’ outlook for the national economy.
Last week, the international credit-rating agency, Moody’s changed Egypt’s outlook to positive from negative. Later on Tuesday, Moody’s also decided to upgrade the long-term deposit ratings outlook of five Egyptian banks to positive from negative.
El-Etreby said the recent strong foreign currency inflows had helped the Egyptian pound witness some stability at EGP 48.4 against the US dollar on Wednesday, compared with EGP 51.
