CAIRO, June 4 (Xinhua) -- The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said on Monday that the country's foreign currency reserves (forex) hit a new record high of 44.138 billion U.S. dollars at the end of May.
In April, the figure was 44.029 billion dollars, the CBE said.
Egypt's forex, which was 36 billion dollars in January 2011 just before the uprising that ousted former President Hosni Mubarak, declined to an alarming level of 13.5 billion dollars in February 2013, a few months before the ouster of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.
The political instability and insecurity led to an economic recession and decline of tourism and foreign investment, two major sources for Egypt's forex.
But Egypt's forex started to gradually rise under President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, who, as the army chief then, led Morsi's ouster in 2013. He was backed by some oil-rich Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, which have provided financial support.
Improving the security condition, increasing remittances of Egyptian expatriates abroad as well as increased foreign loans and deposits, have refilled the CBE with foreign funds.
To boost the economy, bolster forex and contain dollar shortage, Egypt started in late 2016 a strict three-year economic reform program including imposing austerity measures, fuel and energy subsidy cuts and tax increases, in addition to local currency's full floatation that led to nationwide price hikes.
Egypt's reform program is encouraged by a 12-billion-dollar loan from the International Monetary Fund, half of which has already been delivered to the country.
"This increase (of forex) proves that the reform program is making success," said Rashad Abdo, an economics professor at Cairo University and the head of the Egyptian Forum for Economic and Strategic Studies.
Abdo said that the improvement of Egypt's forex is an indication of an advancing economy, adding that the government's economic policies have been a success despite criticism.
"I believe the forex would keep going up during summer as thousands of Egyptian expatriates would visit the country, and tourism would flourish in the coming few months," he added.
