The Central Bank of Egypt is unlikely to devalue the currency until September at the earliest as economic pressure eases on the back of expectations for bumper tourism revenues and increasing positivity about the privatization program, a senior analyst at Citigroup told Bloomberg in an interview.
The US bank has adopted “a more positive view” on the EGP and the country’s USD bonds in the short-term and now sees policymakers waiting until September — when the IMF is expected to review the USD 3 bn loan program — before making a decision on the currency, Luis Costa, global head of emerging-market sovereign credit at Citigroup, told the news outlet.
Easing currency pressure: Three-month non-deliverable forwards climbed 1% to 33.20 on Thursday. The contract had its best month in more than six years in May, gaining 9% during the month.
Costa expects the currency to remain “reasonably stable” over the next two months before falling to 36.00 to the USD by the end of December and 37.00 in 2023. The official USD-EGP rate has remained at 30.90 since the middle of March.
