Egypt’s net international reserves slipped to $19.559 billion at May-end, a decline of more than $1 billion, compared to $20.5 billion in April, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) announced Sunday.
A month earlier, the reserves had jumped from $15.291 billion to $20.5 billion upon receiving $6 billion worth of deposits from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and United Arab Emirates (UAE) in April 2015.
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 el-Sheikh March 13-15.
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE 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 CBE. Oman pledged $500 million.
Egypt’s foreign reserves posted 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 paying back a $2.5 billion deposit to Qatar, upon an official request from Doha.
