FX reserves hit their highest since pre-pandemic levels: Net foreign reserves increased by USD 696 mn from the month before to USD 41.1 bn at the end of April, reaching their highest level in more than four years, according to central bank figures.

And they’re expected to rise even more in the coming months: Credit rating agency Fitch Ratings expects Egypt’s foreign currency reserves to reach USD 49.7 bn in the current fiscal year and USD 53.3 bn in the next, the agency said last week.

Driving inflows: The nation’s coffers continue to reap the benefits of the USD 35 bn Ras ElHekma agreement, the first USD 15 bn tranche of which was delivered in February. This was shortly followed by the central bank floating the EGP and hiking rates by 600 bps, which helped attract FX liquidity back to the official banking system. The International Monetary Fund also approved a decision to let the state immediately draw around USD 820 mn after approving an expanded USD 8 bn loan program last month.

More where that came from: Egypt has a whole lot of funds coming in over the next few months, including EUR 1 bn from the EU’s EUR 7.4 bn package before the summer and USD 14 bn from the Ras El Hekma agreement that was expected to arrive by 30 April, but it’s not clear if this has already arrived or when it will arrive if its still in the pipeline.

All in all: Egypt has lined up a total of USD 57 bn of finance over the past few months, which will trickle in over a period of years as we meet reform milestones or as investments reach financial close.

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