The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) announced on April 3 that the country’s net foreign reserves climbed to USD 44.11 bn at the end of March, up from USD 44.06 bn a month earlier, Invest-Gate reports.

Foreign reserves have been leaping since Egypt secured a USD 12 bn three-year International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan program in November 2016, logging USD 42.61 bn at the end of March 2018. This is due to the efforts endorsed to revive its ailing economy, among them the EGP devaluation, cutting energy subsidies, and introducing a value-added tax.

However, the country’s foreign portfolio investments recorded an outflow of USD 2.65 bn in the last three months of 2018 versus an inflow of USD 540.7 mn in the same quarter of the prior year, according to Reuters calculations based on CBE’s data released on April 1.

Besides, net foreign direct investments (FDIs) dropped in the same period to hit USD 1.74 bn, down from USD 1.9 bn a year earlier, Reuters calculations indicated.

“Overall, the balance of payments in the second quarter of fiscal year 2018/19 is negative because we achieved a deficit for the first time since fiscal year 2015/16, mainly pulled down by negative net portfolio investments due to the turbulence in emergent economies,” Yara Elkahky, an economist at Naeem Brokerage, was quoted as saying by Reuters.