Egypt s banks have funded trade finance transactions worth $70.8 billion since the Egyptian pound was floated in November 2016, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) announced Wednesday.
By the end of February 2017, the banking system had funded $21 billion in trade finance transactions since the EGP float.
Egypt floated the pound in November 2016, in part to pull in foreign currency from the black market to the official banking system.
The EGP has been trading at about 17.8 to the dollar on Wednesday, according to the CBE market average.
Before November 2016, the Egyptian pound had been pegged at EGP 8.8 to the dollar.
Last year, Egypt signed an agreement with the International Monetary Fund for a $12 billion loan to implement its economic reformme progranmme.
Egypt is set to receive the latest $2 billion loan disbursement from the IMF this week, bringing the total amount received by Cairo thus far to $6.08 billion.
