Egypt’s foreign reserves dropped slightly to US$13.5 billion in late February, down from $13.6 billion late January, Central Bank of Egypt said on its website.
Reserves dropped at the end of January to below $15 billion, the amount required to secure imports for three months.
In December, the Central Bank declared that international reserves hit a critical low. The bank subsequently adopted a new system for hard currency trading, and imposed more restrictions in a bid to curb the fall in reserves, which before the revolution that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak had been at $36 billion.
Two weeks ago, Central Bank Governor Hesham Ramez predicted that dollar reserves would continue to fall in March, but at a slower rate. He told independent daily Al-Shorouk that the Central Bank seeks to keep reserves at a certain level as a national objective, but did not specify what that level is.
