CAIRO, Egypt : In a statement released this week, the central bank said that foreign investors transferred more than $925 million dollars into the country's foreign exchange market after the Egyptian pound was sharply depreciated last week.
The central bank added that additional foreign currency from local sources, remittances from Egyptians working abroad and tourism, also flowed into the market over the past three business days.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in October, Egypt promised to shift to a more flexible exchange rate, after reaching an agreement with the IMF for a $3 billion financial support package in October, the country promised to do so after Russia's invasion of Ukraine increased wheat and oil prices and blow to tourism from two of its largest markets.
Egypt has been loosening its dollar peg in jumps in order to let the currency float freely.
The central bank stressed that banks were able to fulfill requests for more than $2 billion by Egyptian importers over the past three days, in addition to the requests of other clients.
When the central bank restricts imports in February, goods began backing up in Egyptian ports, but last month the bank removed those restrictions, so importers began to scouring for dollars for the release of their goods.
Sales of Egyptian treasury bills of one year or less surged at auctions from January 12 through 15 as investors returned after the pound's depreciation.