Egypt sees about $1bn foreign inflows since rate boost

Cairo - Egypt received about $1bn in foreign inflows since the central bank raised interest rates by 200 basis points last week to curb inflation.

The country had $448m in "foreign investment inflows" on Thursday and $400m on Sunday, state-run news agency MENA reported, citing Central Bank Governor Tarek Amer.

He didn’t specify the form for the investments, but Egypt holds weekly Treasury bill sales on those days.

"These investment figures are considered historic," Amer said, according to MENA. They reflect the "success" of the central bank’s monetary policy, which takes into consideration conditions of local and international markets, he said.

Foreign currency inflows into Egypt’s debt and equity markets have been steadily growing since the central bank removed restrictions on the currency and raised interest rates in November before securing a $12 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund.

Foreign holdings of Egyptian T-Bills were about £120bn as of May 23, according to the Finance Ministry’s public debt chief, Samy Khallaf.

On Thursday, the Ministry of Finance said it sold more T-Bills than it targeted to accommodate an uptick in demand from foreign investors.

In Sunday’s sale, the average yield on 9-month notes rose 77 basis points to 20.48%, and the average yield on 3-month notes rose by 1 percentage point to 20.52%.