Egypt central bank cancels foreign currency transfer limit

Egypt’s central bank announced Wednesday cancelling limits on international currency transfers.

“It was decided to permit banks to execute their clients’ orders to make transfers abroad without maximum limits,” the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said in a statement.

Egypt’s central bank governor Tarek Amer said earlier in May that the central bank would “soon” cancel a $100,000 limit on individual bank transfers.

The move to ease capital controls is in line with a timeframe set out under an International Monetary Fund programme agreed late last year, Amer added. The IMF programme requires Egypt to scrap the $100,000 cap on individuals’ transfers abroad and a $50,000 monthly deposit cap on non-priority imports by June.

“The limits of $100,000 relating to individuals will be cancelled … We have no need for foreign currency limits,” Amer told a news conference in Cairo. He did not say if the $50,000 deposit cap would also be lifted.

Controls were imposed after the 2011 uprising against autocrat Hosni Mubarak, to crush a black market for dollars and curb foreign currency outflows and limit the amount of hard currency an individual can transfer abroad to $100,000 per year.

Egypt has struggled to revive its economy in the wake of the 2011 revolution, which drove away tourists and foreign investors, both major sources of hard currency, leading to a dollar shortage that crippled imports.

In a dramatic move in November, the Egyptian central bank floated the currency and the country agreed a $12 billion loan with the IMF to support its reform programme.