President Sisi names veteran banker as caretaker of CBE

Egypt’s president on Thursday appointed a caretaker governor of the central bank, the president’s office said, a day after the bank’s chief resigned amid a grinding economic crisis triggered by Russia’s war on Ukraine.

According to a statement, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi named Hassan Abdalla to succeed Tarek Amer, who had held the post since 2015. The appointment still needs to be ratified by the state-controlled parliament, which is in recess until October.

In a meeting with the new appointee, El-Sisi stressed the importance of upgrading the country’s monetary policies to cope with global economic changes and to diversify Egypt’s sources of foreign currency, the statement also said.

Abdalla, 62, had worked as a banker for almost four decades in Egypt until he became the CEO of the Arab African International Bank in 2004. In May 2021, he was appointed the chairman of United Media Services, a state-controlled media conglomerate.

On Wednesday, El-Sisi accepted Amer’s resignation and named the outgoing governor a presidential adviser. The president’s office offered no explanation for Amer’s resignation. 

Amer had traditionally been seen as in the camp that supported the pound’s depreciation as a way to secure a new loan from the International Monetary Fund in order to address the growing budget deficit.