Egypt’s foreign reserves decline to $19.6bn at May-end

Cairo, Egypt (Capital Markets in Africa) — Egypt’s net foreign reserves slipped to $19.559 billion at May-end, a decline of 4.7% compared to $20.525 billion in April, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said on Sunday.

Egypt received $6 billion in subsidies from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE, the bank’s governor Hisham Ramez said in April.

The country’s foreign reserves stood at nearly $36 billion before the 2011 revolt, but plummeted in the resulting political chaos.However, the reserves have since rebounded on the back of increasing Gulf aid after the 2013 ouster of president Mohamed Morsi and the election to the presidency a year later of former army chief Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, who has steered his government in-line with the three Gulf backers.