Egypt’s Banque du Caire has attracted $1.6 bln since currency float

Egypt’s state-run lender Banque du Caire has attracted some $1.6 billion since Egypt took a bold step of floating its pound in November 2016 until end of last June.

“The bank has directed all the money to finance import operations …,” a senior source in Banque du Caire told Amwal Al Ghad on Thursday.

The bank has collected more than $500 million since the beginning of 2018 until last June, the source said.

The central bank floated the Egyptian pound in late 2016 to attract foreign capital after years of political instability drained the country’s reserves, and the currency has since more than halved in value.

Before the pound was floated, Egypt’s banking system suffered from a shortage of dollars. Only importers of a limited number of essential commodities could get foreign currency from the banks.