Fitch Raises Egypt's Credit Rating

  • Cairo, Arab Republic of Egypt
  • 22 March 2019
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Fitch Ratings upgraded Egypt's rating to B+ with a "stable outlook" against the previous rating B, and announced that the continued healthy performance of Egypt's external financing would depend on the flexibility of the local currency. Indicating that the Egyptian pound has not experienced a strong instability since the strong reduction in 2016.

The Egyptian central bank allowed earlier, a flexible exchange rate for the pound in November 2016, which contributed to the loss of the local currency more than half of its value against the dollar.

Fitch considered that the local currency was weak, but moderate, during the period when the foreign investment in securities took place between mid-April and the end of December, with the pound falling 1.7 percent against the dollar.

The agency showed a stronger return of the foreign investment in 2019, which helped the Egyptian pound to rise by 3 percent by mid-March. It also predicted that Egypt's external debt service would average about $10 billion in 2019-2020, representing about 12 percent of the country's current external receipts, which is in line with the average of similar obligations in the country under the B classification.

Source: (Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Edited)

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