Gold exporters face new requirements as central bank moves on USD black market

Gold exporters will need to receive payment into a bank account within 10 days of making a sale or face being blacklisted by the banking sector under new requirements related to the proceeds of Gold exports by the central bank yesterday designed to crack down on the parallel currency market.

Why gold exporters? Gold exporters often receive payments in USD outside the banking system, which makes it easier for them to trade hard currency on the black market, former deputy head of Blom Bank Egypt Tarek Metwally told Kelma Akhira last night (watch, runtime: 7:18). Prior to this rule gold exporters could sometimes wait up to six months before collecting payment and could rely on non-banking financial services to receive FX, he said.

Local gold prices have soared this year on the back of the falling value of the EGP. Twenty-one carat gold hit an unprecedented EGP 1.8k earlier this month but had fallen back to EGP 1.2k as of yesterday.