Dollar exchange rate hits 13.1 officially

Dollar exchange rate hit on Thursday 13.1 EGP buy price against 8.83 EGP on Wednesday and 13.5 EGP sell price against 8.88 EGP, according to the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) website.

The NBE - the oldest and largest governmental bank in Egypt - said on its website that Sterling Pound stood at 15.99 EGP buy price and 16.68 EGP sell price.

The euro exchange rate reached 14.42 EGP buy price and 15.01 sell price, according to the bank's website.

The Saudi Riyal exchange rate recorded 3.46 buy price against 2.35 EGP on Wednesday and 3.59 EGP sell price against 2.36 EGP on Wednesday.

The Kuwaiti Dinar exchange rate skyrocketed to 43 EGP buy price against 29.11 EGP on Wednesday and 44.62 EGP sell price against 29.41 on Wednesday.

The UAE dirham exchange rate inched up 3.54 EGP buy price against 2.40 EGP on Wednesday and 3.67 EGP sell price against 2.41 EGP on Wednesday, according to the NBE website.

The change in currencies exchange rate ensued from Thursday's decisions by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE).

With the aim of achieving monetary stability and reaching a low inflation rate, the CBE decided Thursday to take a number of measures, including shifting from a fixed exchange rate system to a floating exchange rate system.

As per the decision, all banks operating in Egypt will be able to set the exchange rate price of foreign currencies in order to end for good any trading outside the official market, the CBE said in a statement.

The statement comes shortly after the central bank announced floating the Egyptian pound versus the dollar.

The move, the bank statement said, comes in line with the integrated reform plan adopted by the government to enable the national economy stand against existing challenges and increase growth rate in a way that level up to Egypt's abundant human and natural resources. 

Among the other measures, the bank decided to increase interest rate on the overnight deposit rate, overnight lending rate, the rate of the CBE's main operation and credit rate by 300 bps to 14.75 percent, 15.75 percent, 15.25 percent and 15.25 percent respectively.