The U.S. dollar has strengthened against the Egyptian pound for first time in almost a month to register an average of 18 pounds on Tuesday, according to central bank data. In early February, the official exchange rate of the pound against the greenback strengthened from 18.5 pounds to 15.7 pounds in the middle of last month. Accordingly, Egypt's finance ministry lowered the customs dollar twice last month to reach an exchange rate of 16 pounds and then down to 15.75 pounds to reflect the leap in the Egyptian pound's value against the greenback. The ministry has stated that it would revise the exchange rate of the customs dollar again in the coming days. In January, the customs dollar registered 18.5 pounds after the pound's value weakened significantly, reaching 19 pounds against the dollar only one month after the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) decided to float the pound. The CBE freely floated the pound from its fixed 8.88 pounds rate against the dollar in early November as part of a set of economic reforms to alleviate Egypt's flagging economy. Egypt's foreign reserves reached $26.3 billion by the end of January 2017, up from around $16.5 billion in January 2016, the central bank concluded. Source: Ahram online
