03:13 PM
Thursday 07 March 2024
Written by Manal Al-Masry:
The selling price of the dollar in banks and the black market – the parallel market for currency trade – reached the break-even point, after the Central Bank of Egypt’s decision yesterday to liberalize the exchange rate of the pound against other foreign currencies.
The gap in the price of the dollar in the parallel market and banks had reached more than 130% in previous times before the gap between the two prices disappeared from yesterday and today, according to what sources Masrawy spoke to said.
Some observers whom Masrawy spoke to observed an increase in the reluctance of individuals and companies to sell the dollar in banks and money exchanges, which led to the unification of the exchange rate and the return of foreign exchange flows to the arteries of the official banking sector.
Yesterday, Wednesday, the Central Bank of Egypt announced a return to exchange rate flexibility – floating the pound against the dollar – with its price determined according to market mechanisms – supply and demand.
The Central Bank explained in a statement yesterday that unifying the exchange rate – eliminating the black market – is a very important measure, as it contributes to eliminating the accumulation of demand for foreign exchange after closing the gap between the official and parallel market exchange rates.
The price of the dollar in banks reached from 30.94 pounds on Tuesday to 50 pounds during the middle of yesterday’s trading on Wednesday, before it began to decline to about 49.5 pounds during today’s trading.
Some bank heads told Masrawy today that the movement of customers and companies selling dollars in banks returned starting yesterday after the decision to liberalize the exchange rate after an absence that lasted about two years.
Some officials of exchange companies confirmed the increase in the movement of individual customers to sell currencies from the dollar, the euro, the Saudi riyal, and the UAE dirham, after they had a cash supply after suffering for a year from a lack of cash supply.
Egypt had devalued the pound against the dollar 3 times during the last two years, the last of which was in March 2023, before it returned to the flexibility of the exchange rate again in the fourth wave, starting yesterday.
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