The newly-appointed Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) Hisham Ramez stated that the economy's problem is not in the drop of foreign reserves but rather in the slowdown of economic activity. Ramez stressed on the importance of boosting investment and reconciling with businessmen who earlier violated the law in Hosni Mubarak's era. In a phone interview with Al Qahera Al Youm (Cairo Today) TV talk show, he recommended the cancellation of the presidential decree that prohibits traveling with US$ 10,000 to Egypt because it is not in the interest of tourism. Ramez met with the leaders of banks yesterday to discuss financing small and medium enterprises in the local market as they are the backbone of national economy and create thousands of job opportunities. He affirmed that there is no threat to national economy, despite the current economic turmoil as the market does not continue in one direction whether upwards or downwards. CBE stated on Tuesday that Egypt's foreign reserves fell to US$ 13.613 billion at the end of last January, compared with US$ 15.01 billion at the end of last December, registering a decline of 9.4%. CBE had earlier warned that foreign reserves reached a critical level by falling to US$ 15 billion at the end of last December. CBE has adopted a new system to slow the country's depletion of foreign reserves which was US$ 36 billion before 2011's revolution that ousted Hosni Mubarak. Egypt is in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to receive US$ 4.8 billion loan, but the negotiations faltered because the government has not implemented the economic reform plan required to secure the loan. IMF's mission is slated to visit Egypt in the next few weeks to resume the negotiations.
