Egyptian pound and dollar notes.
The US dollar had stood at EGP 47.9 since the beginning of March, before rising to nearly EGP 53 this week on Monday, 9 March. The dollar hence rose by around 10.1 percent, or EGP 4.8, since the start of the war. The currency declined again, however, to around EGP 52 per $1 a day later, on Tuesday.
This comes after over $1 billion in short term t-bills exited the Egyptian market due to temporary capital-flow pressures since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran and the latter's retaliatory attacks, starting 28 February, against what it described as American assets across the Middle East, including Oman, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, and Qatar.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, the US dollar reached EGP 52.38 for buying and EGP 52.48 for selling, up by around EGP 0.46, or 0.88 percent, from Wednesday’s rates of EGP 51.9 and EGP 52.06, respectively.
These rates show that while the EGP to the US dollar has declined from Tuesday’s rate, it is still significantly higher than the rate recorded before the strikes started, when the rate at the end of February settled at EGP 47.85 for buying and 47.9 for selling.
The fluctuations show capital-flow pressures, with concerns that long-term geopolitical conflict could push the dollar toward EGP 58 and drive inflation higher to 28–30 percent due to increasing global energy, transport, and shipping costs.
The highest rate at banks closed at EGP 52.5 for buying and EGP 52.6 for selling on Thursday, up from EGP 51.96 for buying and EGP 52.06 for selling on Wednesday.
Other banks, such as the Suez Canal Bank, listed the dollar at COB at EGP 52.45 for buying and EGP 52.5 for selling. While banks such as Egyptian Arab Land Bank, Credit Agricole, Banque Misr, QNB Bank, National Bank of Egypt, and CIB listed the dollar at EGP 52.39 and 52.49 EEGP, respectively.
Furthermore, other foreign currencies also recorded their highest rates ever this week, including the euro, which reached almost EGP 61 on Monday before dropping to EGP 60.54 for buying and EGP 60.67 for selling on Thursday, according to the CBE.
The British pound also dropped from its highest peak to EGP 70.16 for buying and EGP 70.31 for selling on Thursday.
Similarly, the Kuwaiti dinar peaked at EGP 172 on Monday, before falling to EGP 170.8 for buying and EGP 171.28 for selling on Thursday.
The Bahraini dinar peaked at around EGP 140 on Monday, before dropping to EGP 138.6 for buying and EGP 139.1 for selling on Thursday.
Th Jordanian dinar surpassed EGP 74 on Monday, before falling to EGP 73.77 for buying and EGP 74.18 for selling on Thursday.
The Omani riyal peaked at around EGP 137 on Monday, before dropping to EGP 136.04 for buying and EGP 136.43 for selling on Thursday.
The Saudi riyal, Emirati dirham, and Qatari riyal have also fluctuated but didn’t record a major increase.
It’s worth noting that Egypt is anticipated to receive a $2.3 billion tranche from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the next few days after the completion of the combined three reviews of the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) loan programmes on 25 February.
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