Egypt PM says central bank to fix currency crisis soon

The central bank will unify the Egyptian pound’s official and black market exchange rates as soon as possible, Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said.

The news has boosted expectations that policymakers will devalue the currency ahead of an expected International Monetary Fund loan.

The regulator is studying the problem and will act in the right time, the state-run MENA news agency cited Ismail as telling parliament Monday. Past exchange-rate moves were done without the right tools and with negative results, Ismail said, without elaborating.


The Egyptian pound lost almost 40 percent of its value in October on the black market, where it trades at more than double the official rate of 8.88 pounds per dollar.