Egypt parliamentary committee expects dollar to cost EGP 13 this summer

The Egyptian parliament's Planning and Budget Committee is set to release a report soon, which predicts that the average price of the US dollar in Egyptian pounds will drop drastically by this summer.
The price of the dollar is expected to register less than EGP 13 on the currency market, Deputy Chairman of the committee Yasser Omar told reporters on Tuesday.

The price of the US dollar registered on Wednesday an average of EGP 16.4, falling drastically from an average of EGP 18.5 a week ago, according to online date from the three major banks, the Commercial International Bank (CIB), the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), and Banque Misr.

Omar said the IMF-inspired economic reforms which the government of prime minister Sherif Ismail adopted three months ago have started to pay off.

"These policies, which aimed to reduce imports and cut subsidies, have led to a sharp drop in demand for US dollars; as a result, the dollar has lost around five percent of its value against the Egyptian pound in the last two days," Omar said.