Remittances from Egyptian expatriates amounted to $34 billion during 2019, and not $26 billion as Egypt’s central bank announced earlier, Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) Tarek Amer said Sunday.
Amer added during statements to the privately owned Sada al-Balad TV channel that Egypt is facing a cash problem, pointing out that the $26 billion are transferred from abroad to banks directly, while other Egyptians bring cash as they return from abroad.
He pointed out that the Central Bank is discussing with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) a review of how it calculates the balance of payments, to add all foreign exchange resources “because in the current period it does not reflect the real state of the economy in the country.”
“Whenever we succeed in adding the informal economy to the formal sector, this reflects on the economy and enables the state to attract foreign direct investment,” CBE’s governor stressed.
Earlier, CBE stated that Remittances from Egyptian expatriates hiked 5 percent or $1.3 billion during 2019, reaching $26.8 billion, compared to $25.5 billion in 2018.
CBE attributed the increase to the hike of the remittances of Egyptians abroad during the second half of 2019 by 13.5 percent or $1.6 billion, to reach $13.7 billion, compared to $12.1 billion in the same period of 2018.
SOURCE: Egypt Today
