The weak demand for the dollar in Egypt during the current time has led to heavy losses for speculators in the black market.
Dealers in the parallel exchange market in Egypt revealed that the demand for the dollar has declined significantly during the last period, especially since Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi spoke about the crisis and his emphasis on postponing any new devaluation of the Egyptian pound against the dollar during the current period.
Gold prices in Egypt are incurring severe losses, and have reached this level
One of the merchants, who asked not to be named, said that the current demand for the Saudi riyal is due to the advent of the Hajj season and the continued opening of visits to Saudi Arabia, which raised the demand for the Saudi riyal, which recorded record highs, reaching 12 pounds in some transactions, compared to 8.25 pounds in the market. official.
He pointed out that with the decline or collapse of the demand for the dollar, its prices in the parallel market fell from the level of 40 pounds at the beginning of this month to levels less than 37 pounds, and in some days it even reached the level of 34 pounds, which caused a large number of incurred losses. Traders are in heavy losses.
At the same time, a recent report revealed that devaluing the Egyptian pound against the dollar at the present time will not solve the crisis. Deutsche Bank stated that this step will not be feasible in encouraging the flow of dollar expenditures.
The Deutsche Bank maintained its expectations for the exchange rate until the middle of this year, which amounted to about 31 pounds, while revising the expectations for the exchange rate at the end of the year to reach 37 pounds, which places more possibilities for the depreciation of the currency in the second half of the year.
Deutsche Bank believes that the main challenges facing the Egyptian government are the return of inflows again, so the only long-term solution is for Egypt to increase the maturity of its debt balance at the present time.
Within the framework of the Egyptian government’s moves to contain the crisis of dollar scarcity, it announced the formation of a special unit to accelerate the issuance program. This committee is due to meet for the first time soon – to speed up the Cabinet’s decision-making process by overseeing the program and working directly with the IFC.
The prospective unit will supervise all procedures of the offerings program, follow up on acquisition offers, receive IFC recommendations, review investor requests, and follow up on progress, with periodic reports to the Council of Ministers in this regard. The unit will also schedule quota sales in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation.
And last Sunday, the Egyptian government announced the appointment of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) as its strategic advisor on the offering program.
The Egyptian government aims to sell stakes in at least 32 state-owned companies by March 2024 through public offerings on the Egyptian Stock Exchange, stake sales to strategic investors, or a combination of the two.
