Central Bank of Egypt Governor highlights inflation-targeting and flexible exchange rate reforms and reports USD 52.6bn net reserves at AlUla conference

The Central Bank of Egypt’s Governor, Hassan Abdalla, used remarks at the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies to set out Egypt’s recent monetary policy approach, including the move to inflation targeting and a fully flexible exchange rate regime since March 2024, and to discuss how the central bank is strengthening crisis preparedness and reserve management. He framed the exchange rate regime shift as a move away from managing a specific exchange rate level toward establishing a credible framework in which the exchange rate reflects supply and demand, and linked confidence effects to a substantial reduction in inflation from around 40% to 12%. The Governor also pointed to expanded use of scenario analysis, stress testing and contingency planning in the banking sector, called for Multilateral Development Banks to create rapidly deployable contingent facilities, and described the Central Bank of Egypt’s Data Science and Advanced Analytics Hub as developing nowcasting tools and leading indicators to reduce decision lags. On external buffers, he reported net international reserves of USD 52.6 billion in January 2026, equating to about 6.3 months of imports and 158% of short-term external debt, alongside an emphasis on improving reserve quality through a stronger asset–liability structure and a longer external liability maturity profile.