Remittances grew by 26.6 percent monthly in May compared to April, which recorded around $2.2 billion.

The CBE attributed this development to the economic reform package implemented on 6 March, when the bank applied the fourth wave of the local currency devaluation against the US dollar and hiked the key interest rates by an unprecedented six percent.

The latest devaluation of the Egyptian pound has contributed to unifying the greenback rates between the official banks and the currency parallel market, which witnessed significant spikes before that due to the US dollar's severe shortage in the local market for over two years.

These actions coincided with Egypt's commitments to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the $8 billion loan programme.

The IMF’s Executive Board is set to make the third review of the programme on Wednesday. Once approved, Egypt will be eligible to receive a tranche of $820 million.

Egypt has taken several actions to deal with the US dollar shortage crisis, including sealing a deal with the UAE to develop the Ras El-Hekma zone, on the North Coast, worth $35 billion.

Moreover, the IMF has approved Egypt’s request to raise the ongoing loan programme value by $5 billion.

Additionally, several international financial institutions and development partners of Egypt have announced financing packages to support the country’s economy, including the Europen Union ($8 billion over three years), the World Bank Group ($6 billion over three years), and the UK ($400 million).

Egypt has also launched several initiatives to attract the US dollar holdings of the Egyptians working abroad into the country, to tackle the US dollar shortage crisis in the local market.

Egypt ranked sixth globally among the world’s remittance recipient countries in 2023, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), with total inflows of $11.09 million.