Arab Finance: The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has called on banks operating in the country to calculate the expected volume of import orders for the upcoming six months, in order to set the expected volume of demand for hard currency, three sources familiar with the matter told Asharq Business on January 18th.
The central bank has verbally requested banks to provide a list of requests regarding opening letters of credit (LCs) for at least 180 days as of December 17th, in addition to enabling documentary collection with up to a maximum of $500,000, excluding shipments with advance payments,” one of the sources said.
This decision comes after the Egyptian government released $1.5 billion worth of goods from ports during the first 10 days of 2023, in addition to releasing goods at a total value of $3 billion last Wednesday and Thursday.
Another source said that banks have completed the process of providing dollars for the small shipments stuck at ports, and started offering dollars for cargoes worth about $250,000.
The CBE has approved, two days ago, the use of LCs for importing production requirements for the first time since the beginning of the year, a source added.
The total released goods since the beginning of December 2022 reached $8.5 billion.