Egypt will receive a part of pledged Gulf deposits in the coming two weeks, Investment Minister Ashraf Salman said during a Monday event at the American Chamber of Commerce.
Gulf countries promised a total of $12.5 billion in aid and investments to Cairo on the first day of the three-day economic summit held in Sharm al-Sheikh March 13-15.
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates each pledged $4 billion to Egypt; $1 billion of the Saudi commitment and $2 billion of the Emirati investment are to be deposited in the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE.) Oman pledged $500 million.
However, the financial deposits pledged by Gulf States leaders were supposed to be delivered few days after the economic summit according to earlier statement from CBE’s governor, Hisham Ramez.
“The deposits will help bolster Egypt’s foreign currency reserves and ease pressure on its local currency,” Ramez told state-owned MENA on March 17.
Egypt’s foreign reserves stood at $15.45 billion at February-end, after noting a sharp slip at the end of 2014, on the back of repaying a $700 million six-month premium on foreign debt owed to the Paris Club in December, a month after baying back a $2.5 billion deposit to Qatar, upon an official request from Doha.
