Crisis-hit Egypt’s currency halved in value since March – The Peninsula

Crisis-hit Egypt’s currency halved in value since March – The Peninsula

Cairo: The Egyptian pound was trading Wednesday at half its value from March after the central bank intervened for a third time as part of an International Monetary Fund loan agreement.

The devaluation, representing a drop of around 50 percent against the dollar over the 10-month period, comes as the price of imported food and other goods is soaring in the country of 104 million.

The Egyptian pound plunged to 31.95 pounds to the dollar in state banks on Wednesday before recovering somewhat in the early afternoon to 29.8 pounds against the greenback.

Experts say the devaluation could continue, with the pound trading at around 35 to the dollar on the parallel market.

Egypt's economy was hit hard after Russia's invasion of Ukraine last February unsettled global investors and led them to pull billions out of the North African country.

The war sent wheat prices spiralling -- heavily impacting Egypt, one of the world's largest grain importers, and piling pressure on its foreign currency reserves.

With costs driven up further by soaring global energy prices, official inflation hit 21.9 percent in December, and food prices rose 37.9 percent year on year, piling further hardship onto households.

The IMF late last year approved a $3 billion loan programme