CAIRO, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- The monthly remittances of Egyptian expatriates grew to 2.3 billion U.S. dollars in October 2019 from 2.1 billion dollars in the same month in 2018, according to a statement by the Central Bank of Egypt on Wednesday.
Remittances of Egyptian expatriates, along with the revenues of the Suez Canal, the tourism sector and foreign investments, are the major sources of hard currency in the country.
However, Egypt has been suffering economic slowdown because of political turmoil and relevant security challenges over the past few years.
To contain the shortage of cash reserve, the government decided to fully float the exchange rate of the Egyptian pound and adopted an economic reform program that cut fuel and energy subsidy and hiked taxes.
The economic reform has secured a 12-billion-dollar loan from the International Monetary Fund for Egypt.
