A flexible EGP is good news for Egyptian economy, veteran banker Ezz Al Arab

The Egyptian economy will stabilize as soon as our backlogged ports start clearing up, CIB non-executive chairman Hisham Ezz Al Arab told  Lamees El Hadidi on her talk show Kelma Akhira’s yesterday (watch, runtime: 3:28).

Clearing up the ports won’t be as expensive as people believe because many importers no longer want their products and will decide to auction it off rather than going through the hassle of releasing them from the ports, he added.

Why a flexible EGP good news? Flexible currency makes it easier for a country to absorb external shocks, Ezz Al Arab said (watch, runtime: 16:10). If the state had adopted a flexible exchange rate it would have helped lessen the USD 22 bn in outflows we saw earlier this year, he explained.