Egypt pound falls against dollar

The turmoil continuing in Egypt and its economy has hit the country’s currency, with the pound falling to its lowest level against the American dollar in 7 years, traders said on Thursday.

According to officials, the central bank has not allowed the pound to go over the 6 mark against the dollar, despite a near collapse of the country’s economy following the popular uprising that ousted the former regime in February.

Since then, both foreign investment and tourism has been hit hard, two of Egypt’s key sources of foreign currency.

According to Reuters news agency, the pound traded as low as 5.985 to the dollar, its weakest since January 4, 2005, and down from 5.968 at Wednesday’s close.

Later on Thursday it regained some of its lost ground, strengthening to 5.9715 to the dollar.

“There has been some outflow from T-bill maturities,” said a Cairo-based currency trader, in comments to the news agency.