Foreign investment in Egypt’s debt at $17.5 bln since pound float – finance minister

Egypt’s Finance Minister Mohamed Maait said foreign inflows in the government securities reached $17.5 billion since its pound currency was floated in November 2016 and up until late June this year.

The currency float was the opening salvo of Egypt ambitious economic reform programme agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to lure back foreign investors and kick-start an economy that crashed after its 2011 Arab Spring uprising.

The central bank announced earlier that the foreign inflows in the government securities rose to $23 billion at the end of March.

Asked about reasons behind the decline in the foreign inflows since March, deputy finance minister Ahmed Kouchouk said: “We saw a rebound in the foreign investments in the government securities in the past two weeks,”