*Egypt’s foreign reserves ended 2020 at $40.1bn, the lowest end-year figure since 2017 and down $5.4bn (12%) year-on-year. But it could have been much worse.
*As of end May, reserves had collapsed to just $36bn as Covid-19 saw the Arab world’s most populous economy grind to a near halt. This $9.5bn (21%) slump from the end-2019 figure was in part reversed in the second half of 2020 thanks to an inflow of $12bn from multilateral lenders, including $8bn from the IMF (MEES, 11 December 2020). (CONTINUED - 208 WORDS)
