Cairo – Mubasher: Egypt’s net international foreign reserves edged higher by $65 million or 0.14% month-on-month (MoM) to reach $45.42 billion by the end of December 2019, according to the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE).

CBE's foreign reserves stood at $45.35 billion by the end of November.

In October, the CBE agreed to extend the maturity of Saudi deposits, on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) meetings in Washington DC.

Egypt received five deposits from Saudi Arabia worth $8 billion between May 2012 and June 2017, a $5.2 billion repayment was scheduled for last October.

The Egyptian banking sector received cash inflows of about $200 billion since the CBE decided to free exchange rates in November 2016.

Moreover, Egypt’s tourism revenues grew by 6.7% between July and September 2019 to $4.19 billion, while net foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows grew to $2.35 billion during the same period.