Liberalizing exchange rate to boost investment

Arab Investors Union Secretary General Gamal Bayoumi said the Central Bank of Egypt's decision on liberalizing exchange rate would largely contribute to stabilizing market, encouraging investors and boosting international confidence in the investment climate.

In statements to MENA on Thursday, Bayoumi said the decision falls as part of an economic reform bundle.

Within this context, Bayoumi referred to the decisions taken by the president-led Supreme Investment Council with the aim of improving the investment climate and removing obstacles facing investors.

Among the decisions adopted yesterday were exempting producers of basic agricultural crops that Egypt imports from taxes for five years, postponing the application of the capital gains tax on stock market transactions for another three years and authorizing the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) to issue temporary permits for unlicensed factories for one year till they settle with their conditions and obtain full permits.

Bayoumi voiced hope that the decisions would contribute to shrinking budget deficit and supporting economy.

Dollar exchange rate hit on Thursday 13.1 EGP buy price against 8.83 EGP on Wednesday and 13.5 EGP sell price against 8.88 EGP, according to the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) website.

Medhat Nafie, a membre of the World Federation of Exchanges, expected the decision of liberalizing exchange rate to positively affect Egyptian Bourse morning trading.

In statements to MENA, Nafie said new investments are expected to be injected into the Egyptian market as investors would not be hamstrung by dollar deficiency.

With the aim of achieving monetary stability and reaching a low inflation rate, the CBE decided Thursday to take a number of measures, including shifting from a fixed exchange rate system to a floating exchange rate system.

As per the decision, all banks operating in Egypt will be able to set the exchange rate price of foreign currencies in order to end for good any trading outside the official market, the CBE said in a statement.

The statement comes shortly after the central bank announced floating the Egyptian pound versus the dollar.

The move, the bank statement said, comes in line with the integrated reform plan adopted by the government to enable the national economy stand against existing challenges and increase growth rate in a way that level up to Egypt's abundant human and natural resources. 

Among the other measures, the bank decided to increase interest rate on the overnight deposit rate, overnight lending rate, the rate of the CBE's main operation and credit rate by 300 bps to 14.75 percent, 15.75 percent, 15.25 percent and 15.25 percent respectively.