Central bank of Egypt receives 2b Kuwaiti deposit

The reserve hits USD 18.9 billion late August, before giving back the Qatari USD 2 billion deposit two days ago. CBE, early September pumped USD 1.3 billion to the local banks in a bid to finance their clients' demands. This move led to narrowing the gap between the daily exchange rate announced by CBE and that of the black market. Egypt's current account deficit for fiscal year 2012/2013 decreased by 45 % to $5.6 billion against 11.3 billion a year earlier, says a statement by the Central Bank of Egypt. The bank attributed the improvement to a drop in trade deficit by 7.6 % to $31.5 billion as exports increased alongside a higher rate of import decrease. Egyptian exports increased by 3.6 % year to year, registering at $26 billion, while imports declined by less than 3 % to $57.5 billion. The rise of the services surplus - another component of the current account - from 19.8 % to $6.7 billion, also eased the current account deficit. It was driven by a 3.5 % increase in tourism revenues and transportation receipts of Egyptian navigation and aviation companies. These two factors balanced the slight decrease in Suez Canal receipts and the drop in the profit transfers of foreign companies in Egypt. Overall, Egypt's balance of payment - which reflects Egypt's transactions with the external world - unfolded a surplus of $237 million against a deficit of $11.3 billion in the previous year. Aid from Arab Gulf countries has enabled Egypt to avoid a balance of payments crisis thought the decrease of net inflows of foreign direct investment to the country by 25 % to only $3 billion versus $4 billion a year earlier. The central bank stated that its net liabilities to the external world increased to US$6.5 billion from US$ 1.2 billion, mainly because of the pickup in deposits transferred from some Arab countries.