The Central Bank of Egypt said on Sunday that it had received huge deposits from Libya and Qatar late last year as Egypt grappled with a foreign currency shortage.
The Egyptian bank said that the two deposits are one billion dollars from Qatar, and the other amounted to 700 million dollars from Libya.
In particular, a shortage of US dollars has brought parts of the Egyptian economy to a standstill, forcing Cairo to delay payments for wheat and other necessities for months as it struggles to pay suppliers.
The deposits raise the levels of foreign exchange reserves of the bank to 34.7 billion dollars, as Qatar has a total of 3 billion dollars in the Central Bank of Egypt and Libya 900 million dollars.
The shortage of foreign currency is one of Egypt’s economic problems and it has to deal with huge payments for its foreign borrowing.
The announcement of new deposits comes as Cairo prepares for a visit to the International Monetary Fund in the first week of July. The International Monetary Fund approved a $3 billion loan to Egypt late last year.
This loan will only serve as a small aid to Egypt, and it is clear that Egypt faces a funding gap of $17 billion over the next four years.
