The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) announced on November 5 that the country’s foreign currency reserves continued its upward trend and increased by USD 44.501 bn at the end of October, a bit higher than USD 44.459 bn in September, Invest-Gate reports.

The country’s foreign reserves have been steadily surging since it secured the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) USD 12 bn three-year loan in 2016 to ease an acute shortage of foreign currency.

In June 2017, Egypt’s foreign debt stood at USD 79 bn while the burden of foreign debt service reached USD 13.2 bn during the FY 2017/18 versus USD 7.32 bn in the prior fiscal year, according to CBE’s figures.

The central bank had attributed this hike to higher loans as well as a jump in the exchange rate of foreign currencies against the USD, which accounted for a USD 0.4 bn increase.