Foreign currencies reserves impressive move

A report released yesterday by the Central Bank of Egypt said that Egypt's foreign currencies reserve went up to $16.6 billion with an increase of $1.5 billion until last January.

It is the biggest number scored since December 31/1999 when the reserve hit about $15.6 billion.

The report also pointed to a rise on the balance of payments which reached US$3 billion from July to December 2004 against US$2 billion for the same period in 2003.There was a deficit of US$61 million in 2001.

This improvement is due to a 41 % growth in exports of commodities, while oil export have shot up 47 %, tourism revenues have increased 23 %, Suez Canal revenues have gone up 15 % and remittances from Egyptian expatriates have grown 26 %. Last month, the Central Bank paid off some US$450 million of Egypt's foreign debt.