STORY: Egypt's state banks offer dollar-deposit certificates to ease hard currency shortage
DATELINE: July 26, 2023
LENGTH: 00:00:48
LOCATION: Cairo
CATEGORY: SOCIETY/ECONOMY
 
SHOTLIST:
1. various of U.S. dollars
2. various of the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) and Banque Misr
 
STORYLINE: 
Egypt's two state-owned banks issued Tuesday high-interest U.S. dollar-deposit certificates to lure hard currency back into the country's financial system.
 
On their Facebook pages, Banque Misr and the National Bank of Egypt said they are offering a three-year dollar-denominated deposit certificate with 9 percent annual interest to be paid upfront in Egyptian pounds.
 
Both banks also offer another three-year dollar deposit certificate with 7 percent interest paid quarterly in dollars. It will allow depositors to receive a loan equal to half its value with a maximum of 10 million pounds (about 324 dollars).
 
A deposit of 1,000 dollars is the minimum sum for buying a certificate, the two banks added.
 
The Egyptian local currency has lost about half its value since March 2022. The latest dollar-pound exchange rate stood at 30.90, almost doubling the rate of 15.75 at the beginning of 2022, according to the Central Bank of Egypt. Meanwhile, 1 dollar is sold at 40 pounds in the black market.
 
As a major grain importer, Egypt saw its economic crisis worsen over the past year after the Russia-Ukraine conflict disrupted the global food supply.
 
Egypt's annual inflation rate rose to an all-time high of 36.8 percent in June, compared to 14.7 percent a year earlier, according to the country's statistics agency.
 
The devaluation is part of the country's "shift to a durable exchange rate regime" demanded by the International Monetary Fund, which approved a loan of about 3 billion dollars to Egypt in December last year to finance its economic and structural reforms.
 
Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Cairo.
(XHTV)