The Egyptian pound edged up in this week's early transactions against the US dollar, with the cut-off price at EGP 7.002 to the US dollar compared to EGP 7.0189 at last Wednesday's auction. The index of the US dollar internationally declined 1.5%. "Current political upheavals have left investors somewhat puzzled and confused, and have pulled the import sector to a halt," said Sameh Abdel Rahman, head of Crown's exchange company. Echoing that opinion, Mohamed El-Abyad, head of the Exchange Division at the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce (FECC), attributed this hike in the pound's value to the recession of the Egyptian market and people's concerns over what may happen in the coming days. Both agreed that the aid injected from various Arab Gulf countries has had a great impact on the price of the pound to the US dollar. Arab countries recently announced new financial aid packages to Egypt, including $5bn from Saudi Arabia, $3bn from the United Arab Emirates and $4bn from Kuwait, in addition to a Bahraini aid package which is expected to be put forward soon. Abdel Rahman emphasised that there is no technical or financial expectation to dollar prices in the future, but if the circumstances continue to improve the US dollar prices could return to EGP 6.9, the rate before the recent political and economic fluctuations. Ali El-Hadidy, Secretariat of the Exchange Division at the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce (FECC), expected the US dollar prices to settle down in case of "stability".
