Remittances by Egyptians working abroad are expected to reach $26 billion in the current 2017/18 fiscal year, according to a statement from the Central Bank of Egypt issued on Tuesday.

This comes in light of remittances between July 2017 and April 2018 hitting $21.9 billion, the CBE said.

In April 2018 alone, Egyptians abroad remitted $2.3 billion, up from $1.7 billion in April of last year, the bank added.

The $26 billion figure for the current fiscal year compares to remittances registering $17.4 billion in fiscal year 2016/17. The Egyptian pound was floated in November 2016.

Egyptian expats have been increasingly sending back remittances to Egypt following the EGP float.

Total remittances between November 2016, when the Egyptian currency was floated, and December 2017, recorded $29.1 billion, a 19.2 percent increase compared to the same period a year earlier, according to a CBE statement issued in February.

In the first half of the current fiscal year, net current remittances had driven a contraction of the current account deficit by 64 percent year-on-year, as remittances increased to $13.1 billion, up from $10.1 billion in H1 2016/17, the bank had announced in April.

Around 9.4 million Egyptians live abroad out of a total population of 104.2 million.