Egypt will fix its customs dollar exchange rate and adjust it on a monthly basis to help importers better cope with pricing of their products after the central bank floated its currency in November. The Finance Ministry fixed the customs exchange rate at 18.5 pounds per dollar until the end of February and said it will review the rate each month, state news agency MENA reported late on Monday. It just helps importers have some kind of visibility on the rate of the dollar they should use in their pricing. Thousands of importers have been caught out by the float, facing ballooning dollar debts after they had opened dollar credit-lines with banks. They also face difficulty in pricing their imported goods in Egyptian pounds and have called for the government to fix its customs dollar exchange rate to provide more clarity.

Source: Egypt Independent January 18, 2017 12:46 UTC