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Investing.com – A long journey of suffering for the Egyptian pound during 2022 transactions, after two exchange rate floats, during which the Egyptian pound lost 57% of its value after announcing a flexible exchange rate policy.
According to data from the Central Bank of Egypt today, Sunday, the first trading of the new year 2023, the exchange rate is still at the same levels at the end of last year, after losses exceeding 9 pounds against .
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pound now
According to the official rates of exchange rates, and after the Egyptian pound fell against the dollar on December 28 by two piasters, the pound recorded levels near 24.79 in the Central Bank.
The Central Bank of Egypt’s price screen today, Sunday, January 1, 2023, shows that the pound recorded levels of 24.7850 pounds per dollar for sale, and levels of 24.7018 pounds per dollar for purchase.
Today, Sunday, the exchange rate in the national banks, the National Bank of Egypt and Banque Misr, recorded levels of 24.71 pounds dollars for sale and levels of 24.66 pounds dollars for buying.
In private banks, exchange rates recorded today, Sunday, an average of 24.77 pounds per dollar for sale, and levels of 24.74 pounds per dollar for purchase.
Day off
And the Egyptian Central Bank decided to suspend work today, Sunday, in banks operating in Egypt and the Egyptian Stock Exchange, on the occasion of the end of the fiscal year for most banks in Egypt, and the Egyptian Stock Exchange announced, in a statement on the same day, that it was decided to consider Sunday, January 1, 2023, an official holiday in the stock exchange on the occasion of the bank holiday.
And the Central Bank said during a statement last Tuesday: “On the occasion of the end of the fiscal year for banks operating in Egypt on December 31, 2022, it was decided to suspend work in all banks operating in Egypt on Sunday, January 1, 2023, provided that work resumes on Monday morning, January 2.” 2023
General losses
On January 1, 2022, the Egyptian pound, according to CBE data, was trading at levels of 15.7786 pounds per dollar for sale and 15.6517 levels for buying, losing about 57%.
On March 21, following the adoption of the first floating decision in 2022, the exchange rate of the dollar against the pound rose to levels of 18.2884 pounds per dollar for sale, and levels of 18.1519 pounds per dollar.
The price of the dollar took an upward path following the decision to liberalize exchange rates on March 21, to rise from levels of 18.28 pounds per dollar to levels of 19.7673 pounds per dollar on October 26, 2022.
On the morning of October 27, 2022, the Central Bank of Egypt made the decision for the second time to liberalize the exchange rate, so that the dollar exchange rate jumped from 19.76 to levels of 23 pounds per dollar on October 27.
The same thing happened that time, as the dollar took an upward path, jumping from 23 pounds per dollar on October 27 to levels of 24.7850 pounds per dollar at the end of December 31, 2022 transactions.
Black market
In the meantime, the black market tends to appear again and show its ugly face, striking more imbalances and distortions in the Egyptian exchange market.
According to media reports and local and international newspapers, the exchange rate of the dollar rose at its peak to levels close to 38 pounds per dollar, an increase of more than 13 pounds over the official rates.
turning point
With the Central Bank of Egypt receiving the first installment of the agreed-upon International Monetary Fund loan at a value of 3 billion, while the first installment was worth 375 million dollars, radical transformations began in the black market.
The exchange rate of the dollar on the black market decreased during the past two weeks, according to local reports and Arab and Egyptian media, from levels of 38 pounds per dollar to levels below 30 pounds per dollar.
Some Egyptian reports and channels monitored the drop in exchange rates on the black market to levels below 28 pounds per dollar, while the pound was stabilizing on the black market.
Central fights the black market
And through a set of decisions that came mostly surprisingly, the Central Bank of Egypt continued to clamp down on the black market by issuing a set of decisions and directives.
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The Central Bank announced the cancellation of its decision to work with the system of documentary credits only, issued in February, and the acceptance of collection documents for the implementation of all import operations.
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– The Central Bank instructed banks to procure foreign exchange and open the limits of credit cards and direct debit cards for needs in foreign currency for the purposes of education and treatment without maximum limits, upon the customer’s request for those uses, and to provide supporting documents for that.
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-Egyptian banks decided to restrict international spending on credit and instant debit cards for some categories of merchants, including jewelry dealers.
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The Central Bank of Egypt sent a letter to the banks in the event that the proceeds of gold export operations were not received within a maximum period of 7 working days from the date of shipment, and after the bank followed up with the customer for only the next 3 working days, it must inform the Central Bank.
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The Central Bank of Egypt stressed on banks the need to notify customers by any means of communication that it is prohibited to misuse credit cards and direct debit cards, especially for customers who do not leave the country.
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Banks raised the commission rate on dollar cash withdrawals and purchases outside Egypt to 10% instead of 3%.
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Egyptian banks decided to amend the limits for cash withdrawals in foreign currencies on all cards, and to amend the limits and restrict the use of cards to some purchases from abroad.
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The Central Bank of Egypt called on banks to verify purchases from abroad for customers through their bank cards, and to ensure that they actually left the country during the timing of the purchases.
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Exempting customers from all expenses and commissions related to bank transfer services to individuals, which are carried out through electronic channels (internet and mobile banking) in Egyptian pounds.
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– Exempting customers of the national system for real-time payments – which was launched in April 2022 – from all expenses and commissions related to instant transfer services, as the system is one of the most important infrastructure projects for payment systems sponsored by the Central Bank of Egypt to be an integrated alternative to cash payments that allows all remittance services to customers in real time. 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.
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Canceling all fees for activating electronic collection services via the Internet (E-Commerce) for micro, small and medium-sized companies that wish to activate this service, in order to motivate companies to expand the use of digital financial services.
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– Implementation of a new pricing policy for transfer services through the mobile wallet,
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Exempting all customers from transfer fees for the first transaction per month to transfer from any mobile phone wallet to any other wallet
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– Setting a maximum limit for expenses incurred by the customer for other transfer transactions that take place between mobile phone wallets belonging to the same service provider, so that their value does not exceed 1 pound only. As for transfer transactions that take place between any two mobile phone wallets that are not affiliated with the same service provider, the pricing has been modified. Existing to be a maximum of 15 pounds per transaction.