Egypt's biggest lender, the state-run National Bank of Egypt's profits rose to about 16.1 billion Egyptian pounds ($938.8 million) during the first half of financial year 2018/2019, according to banking sources. Earlier, profits stood at around 13.2 billion pounds during the first half of financial year 2017/2018. "The bank's net profits after tax increased by 2 billion pounds, to record around 9.7 billion pounds from 7.7 billion pounds last year," the official sources further told Amwal Al Ghad on Wednesday. During the financial year 2017/2018, net profit dropped to 10.1 billion pounds against 13.4 billion pounds during the financial year 2016/2017, they added. The decline was due to the bank's issuance of high-yielding certificates as part of the government's corrective economic reform measures, including the liberalisation of Egypt's exchange-rate regime on November 3, 2016. The issuance of the certificates aimed to relieve the burden of these reform measures on the citizens' savings and to redress the growing inflation rates. Nevertheless, NBE's net profits are expected to exceed 16 billion pounds within the current financial year after the bank suspended issuing more high-yielding certificates and growth in the borrowing rates given the recent economic reforms, the sources said.
