Egypt’s Net International Reserves inched up by 0.3 percent at the end of July, reaching $16.74 billion compared to $16.69 billion in June, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) announced on Thursday.

July's slight increase came after two consecutive drops in foreign reserves in May and June.

In January, the country's foreign reserves recorded $17.1 billion.

Reserves fell sharply after the 2011 uprising that ousted president Hosni Mubarak, but were lifted last year when Gulf Arab states gave billions of dollars in aid to Egypt after Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was deposed by the military following mass protests against his rule.

According to Al-Ahram's Arabic news website, the forex rise has been attributed to high revenues from the country's vital waterway the Suez Canal that registered $5.3 billion by end of the fiscal year 2013/14.

Al-Ahram added that reducing Egypt's imports over the last two months has eased demands on dollars, which relatively pushed up the reserves.

Official figures of Egypt's trade deficit for the period between May and June 2014 have yet to be released.