Remittances from expatriate Egyptians continued their uptrend in July for the seventh month in a row, as currency flotation made the black market vanish, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said in a statement on Sunday. Remittances for the month of July rose to $1.8bn compared with $1.2bn during July last year, it said. In the period since Egypt floated its currency in November through July, Remittances from expatriate Egyptians have reached $14.5bn, the statement added. That figure is up from $12.6bn during the same period the previous year, the statement said. Remittances for the month of July rose to $1.8bn compared with $1.2bn during July last year, it said. Egyptians working abroad send back billions of dollars a year in remittances, an important source of hard currency for a country that has seen tourism, foreign investment, and exports dwindle in the political turmoil that followed the 2011 revolt. The CBE floated the Egyptian pound on 3 November, aiming to unlock foreign currency inflows and crush a black market for dollars that had discouraged people from channelling foreign currency through the banking system. Expatriates had turned to the black market as the spread between the official pound to dollar exchange rate and the parallel rate widened. The uptick in remittances suggests that the flotation, and subsequent steep depreciation in the pound, has succeeded in encouraging Egyptians to send more money home through the formal economy.
