Egypt’s Dollar Black Market Returns as Shortage Unresolved

Traders outside the banking system are charging 7.699 Egyptian pounds per dollar, according to the average of four dealers surveyed by Bloomberg today. That’s up from 7.636 on March 17, and represents the first time it has fallen out of the central bank-set range of 5 piasters from the official 7.6301 per dollar interbank price.

Dollar demand is resurfacing even as bank deposits remain capped at $50,000 per month. The deposit limit, coupled with a 6.3 percent official devaluation of the pound, had eliminated a black market dollar premium of as much as 9.4 percent in January, and the central bank declared it over the following month. Egypt hasn’t disclosed how it will use $6 billion of aid sent by its Gulf allies this month to help fix its ailing economy.