Rise of Egypt's Reserves of Foreign Exchange

  • Cairo, Egypt
  • 7 August 2020
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Egypt's foreign exchange reserves increased slightly during last July, but it remained far from its high level recorded last March.

According to the data issued by the Central Bank, Egypt's foreign exchange reserves reached $38.315 billion at the end of last July, up from $38.202 billion in June.

The reserves recorded a high level last March, at $45 billion, which later began a downturn due to the negative economic and monetary consequences of the Coronavirus. The balance of Egypt's foreign exchange reserves was damaged, under the influence of the outbreak of the Coronavirus, locally and abroad, amid the exit of investors from debt instruments and the local stock exchange.

In another context, the head of the Egyptian Suez Canal Authority, Osama Rabei, revealed that the canal's revenues have reached about $27.2 billion since the opening of the new canal.

In a statement issued on the occasion of the five-year anniversary of the opening of the new Suez Canal, Rabie affirmed that the new canal had a great impact on increasing the number and tonnage of ships crossing the canal during the aforementioned period. Where the statistics of navigation since the inauguration of the channel so far recorded the crossing of 90 thousand ships, with a net tonnage of 5.5 billion tons, with a total revenue of 27.2 billion dollars.

The navigation reports from the beginning of 2020 to the current August reflect the role that the new canal played in maintaining the transit rates of ships to the canal, despite the global challenges of the spread of Coronavirus, as the Suez Canal witnessed during that period the crossing of 11250 ships, with a total net tonnage of 693 million tons, and revenue of $3.3 billion.

Source (London Arab newspaper, Edited)