This file picture taken on August 25, 2022 shows Egyptian pound and US dollar banknotes. - Limited bank withdrawals, rationed bags of rice and advertised health benefits of chicken feet all spell crisis in Egypt. AFP
The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has depreciated the Egyptian pound against the US dollar by about 10 percent for the third time since March.
Accordingly, the US dollar price recorded EGP 26.38 for purchasing and EGP 26.47 for selling at closing on Wednesday.
At the country's major banks, the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) and Banque Misr, the US dollar price registered EGP 26.25 for purchasing and EGP 26.3 for selling.
At the Commercial International Bank, the dollar traded at EGP 26.3 for purchasing and EGP 26.4 for selling.
The price of the euro also gained value against the Egyptian pound on Wednesday, recording EGP 27.96 for purchasing and EGP 28.06 for selling, up from EGP 26.04 and EGP 26.12 respectively.
The decline comes a few hours after the NBE and Banque Misr offered new 25-percent-yield saving certificates.
"A permanent shift to a flexible exchange rate regime" is one of the measures included in the 46-month package of $3 billion approved for Egypt by the IMF.
The government said that as of early December it has released over $6.8 billion worth of imported commodities that were stuck in Egyptian ports as a result of the US dollar shortage.
Moreover, the Central Bank of Egypt has cancelled a requirement for importers to obtain letters of credit (LCs) for their purchases, returning to the cash-against-documents system for importing goods.
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