From The Daily Star
Egypt’s financial crisis is hindering payments for food commodities as banks and traders say some of the funding problems that first surfaced early last year are re-emerging.
Subsidized food is considered essential to heading off social unrest in the world’s biggest wheat buyer, a nation that has seen protests lead to the removal of two Egyptian presidents in the past three years.
Traders and bankers said tight foreign currency reserves, combined with the central bank taking a particularly cautious approach to allocating these funds, were slowing payment procedures for food bought by state entities.
“Egypt’s political turmoil since 2011 has affected the country’s foreign currency reserves because of the fall in tourism and foreign direct investment,” said Mohammad Tousson, head of structured trade finance at Ahli United Bank’s Egypt subsidiary.
“This forced the central bank to take drastic measures to direct its available funds to the strategic commodities, food-related items and medicine,” he added.
Written by Maha El Dahan, Sarah McFarlane/Read more at The Daily Star
The post Egypt’s Financial Crisis Slows Food Payments appeared first on AFKInsider.