US dollar exchange rate up by 15.9 percent against Egyptian
In an extraordinary meeting held on Monday the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) boosted interest rates by about 1%, ahead of the Monetary Policy Committee’s planned meeting on Thursday.
Despite the Egyptian Central Bank’s unexpected decision to raise interest rates, the pound plummeted sharply against the dollar.
The Egyptian pound continues to fall against the dollar, according to Refinitiv data, trading at 18.17-18.27.
According to Tradeweb data, Egyptian government bonds denominated in dollars increased two years after the pound was devalued.
According to Al-Arabiya.net, the dollar was bought for 16.95 pounds at government banks, compared to 17.05 pounds for sale.
The dollar conversion rate was around 17.40 pounds for purchase and 17.50 pounds for sale in Al-Ahly and Egyptian banks.
Analysts at JP Morgan predicted a few days ago that the Egyptian pound would need to be devalued significantly.
They suggested that if financial market pressures continue to rise, Egypt’s government may require additional support from the International Monetary Fund.
He anticipated that Egypt’s already-stressed governmental finances will be exacerbated by rising primary commodity and food costs, as well as a likely drop in the number of Russian tourists.
The Federal Reserve of the United States proposed many scenarios, the first of which is that the currency will not be devalued.
In 2014-2015, the bank presented a similar scenario in which the authorities allowed the currency to decline by around 5%.
A bigger depreciation under a fresh IMF program is the third scenario.
According to the results of this scenario analysis, the USD might lose 8.5 percent of its value.