Foreign Investments In Govt. Debt Instruments Returned 2 Months Ago

Egypt’s foreign cash reserves lost about US$ 21 billion in the last year and nine months; of which US$ 10 billion was used to import petroleum products and US$ 11 billion of investments that exited the Egyptian market, said Nidal Assar, sub governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) for investment and foreign relations.

On the sidelines of Euromoney Conference, Assar added that foreign investments returned in Egypt in government debt instruments in the last two months. He then expected foreign cash reserves to increase slightly, if Egypt received a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in addition to the funds that Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey pledged to deposit at CBE.

CBE does not receive any dollar tranches last September as Qatar deposited the first tranche of the deposit at the beginning of this month. Assar expected Turkey to deposit the first tranche of the deposit by the end of this month or the beginning of November.

The return on the Egyptian Dollar Certificates of Deposit offered for Egyptians living abroad exceeded US$ 100 million. Assar expected the return on such CDs to reach US$ 300 million in the upcoming period.

CBE is comfortable with the current currency valuation, Assar said, adding that CBE intervenes in the currency whenever there is an excessive speculation on the market.

Egypt’s foreign cash reserves stood at about US$ 15 million at the end of last September, compared to US$ 36 billion in September 2010.