The dollar deposit ceiling placed by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) will help stabilise the value of the US dollar against the Egyptian pound, banking analysts stated. They added that the value is expected to remain EGP 7.63 to the dollar for some time. On Wednesday, the CBE governor, Hisham Ramez, called national bank heads for an emergency meeting to discuss the latest developments in the domestic currencies' market. The ceiling placed is $10,000 for cash deposits per day per person or company. The CBE's ceiling adds that monthly deposits should not exceed $50,000. "This precaution was taken to fight the black market," an official at the Commercial International Bank (CIB) said. The official, who requested to remain anonymous, added that the rates are expected to remain stable at this time probably "until the March Economic Summit". On 4 February, the US dollar's value stabilised for the first time at EGP 7.53 in the CBE and EGP 7.63 at Banque Misr and the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), since the CBE's dollar auction on 19 January. Unofficially, the dollar value ranged between EGP 7.8 to EGP 7.9. "This comes as part of the steps taken by the CBE to demolish the black market," director of investment banking and corporate finance at Cairo Financial Holding (CFH) Ahmed El-Zahhar said, adding that "it will be more helpful than the traditional methods of applying sanctions". This procedure, El-Zahhar added, will reduce the gap between the official and unofficial market.
