CAIRO, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's foreign exchange (forex) reserves rose to 44 billion U.S. dollars in April, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said in a statement on Thursday.
"Egypt's forex reserves have reached 44.03 billion dollars by the end of April 2018," said the CBE, noting the forex reserves stood at about 42.6 billion dollars in March.
Egypt has been going through a strict three-year economic reform program since late 2016, starting with local currency floatation to contain dollar shortage followed by austerity measures, energy subsidy cuts and tax increases.
Despite causing price hikes and high inflation rates, the liberalization of the Egyptian pound's exchange rate encouraged the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to support Egypt's economic reform plan by a 12-billion-dollar loan, half of which has already been delivered to the North African country.
The reform program started to reflect positively on the country's economic performance, which led the IMF to expect the Egyptian economic growth to continue rising in the coming few years.
"Growth is projected to rise to 5.2 percent in fiscal year (FY) 2018, compared to 4.2 percent in the previous one, and accelerate further to 5.5 percent in FY 2019, aided by an increase in gas production," the IMF said in an annual report released Wednesday.
It added that the outlook for Egypt's economy improved and increased confidence of investors in its economic and investment climates, citing the recent increase in Egypt's exports and tourism as well.
Banking expert Mohamed al-Shemi said that the constant rise of Egypt's forex reserves is regarded as "a certificate of trust" to the Egyptian economy that boosts confidence of world financial institutions in the country's economic future.
"It leads foreign investors to confidently pump investments in Egypt," Shemi told Xinhua.
The country marked in late January the early production of Zohr gas field, the largest in the Mediterranean Sea, which was discovered in the Egyptian offshore by Italy's oil giant Eni in August 2015.
"The Egyptian tourism sector started to recover, the foreign investments started to flow and Zohr gas field started production, which are among the factors that raise the forex and boost the economy," the expert said.
