clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

Egypt foreign reserves record slight rise in July

August 7, 2020 at 2:07 pm

An Egyptian counts his money at the Ashmun market in Egypt on 15 August 2018 [MOHAMED EL-SHAHED/AFP/Getty Images]

Egypt’s foreign reserves increased slightly to $38.315 billion during July, from $38.202 billion in June, Egypt’s Central Bank said yesterday.

Last March, Egypt’s foreign reserves reached as high as $45 billion, however they have been declining due to the economic and financial repercussions of COVID-19, including a drop in foreign investments and a halt in tourism.

Despite the fact that Egypt is working to get its tourism industry back on its feet, the International Monetary Fund has predicted that Egypt will record more than two per cent losses of its GDP due to coronavirus.

The Central Bank of Egypt has said that in the first quarter of 2020, revenues from the tourist sector hit their lowest rate in two years.

In the first quarter of 2019 Egypt’s tourism revenues were $2.6 billion and in 2020, over the same period of time, they were $2.3 billion, an 11.4 per cent decrease.

The economic repercussions of the pandemic are huge for Egypt, which was already struggling due to government mismanagement and corruption.

READ: Egypt stock market continues to plunge amid political, economic uncertainty