Acting Governor, discuss ways to exempt production equipment imports from letter of credit system
Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly has followed up on the steps taken to implement a decision to exempt the importers of production equipment from having to use the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) letter of credit system.
In a meeting on Sunday, new CBE governor Hassan Abdullah briefed Madbouly on the efforts exerted to implement the decision, which aims to support the industrial sector in accordance with Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi’s directives.
Last February, the CBE issued new rules obliging all importers to use letters of credit to finance their imports instead of the earlier collection system, which had been in force for many years.
Foreign companies and subsidiaries have been exempted from the rules.
However, the new decision was met with objections from importers, who said it would worsen existing supply chain issues, take more time, increase production costs and, accordingly, lead to higher inflation.
As a result, President El-Sisi issued a decision in May excluding the importers of production supplies and raw materials from the new system.
Madbouly and Abdullah also discussed the proposed policies for dealing with this issue in the future to secure the availability of various products in the local market and to keep the production wheels moving and the economy running, a cabinet statement read.
The meeting also saw discussions on a number of economic issues, including the indices of the monetary policy as well as the positive effect expected following a recent decision by the CBE to cancel the maximum limit for deposits at banks and ATMs.
During the COVID-19 crisis, the CBE set a maximum limit for cash deposits as part of measures to face its global economic impact.
They also touched upon a host of proposed time-bound measures to deal with the current economic situation and the repercussions of the global crisis in a manner that ensures full integration and coordination in monetary policies, the statement noted.
In addition, the meeting tackled the government efforts to improve the investment climate and how to stimulate the private sector’s engagement in the economy.
