As pound devalues, Egypt to adjust customs dollar exchange rate to 16 per dollar

Egypt will begin setting its dollar exchange rate for customs to 16 percent as of end of April, said Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait on Monday.

The customs rate will be 16 Egyptian pounds to 1 dollar for staple goods and production essentials.

Egypt’s central bank has convened this morning unscheduled monetary policy meeting to hike key interest rates for the first time in five years.
The overnight deposit rate, overnight lending rate, and the rate of the main operation were raised to 9.25 percent, 10.25 percent, and 9.75 percent, respectively. The discount rate was also hiked by 100 points to 9.75 percent.

The central bank has also devalued the pound this morning by more than 11 percent against the U.S. dollar.