Egypt’s Central Bank Governor Tarek Amer Resigns
Photo credit: Entreprise
Egyptian President Abdelfattah Al Sisi accepted on Wednesday 17 August the resignation of Tarek Amer as the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) Governor.
According to state media Al-Ahram, Amer has been appointed as a presidential advisor.
As at the time of publication, a new governor has not been announced. It is expected that the new governor will be appointed this week.
Amer’s resignation came one day before the CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) interest-rate meeting that is set to be held today.
The MPC is expected to hike interest rates once again in response to the continued impacts of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on Egypt’s economy and rising inflation. In July, Egypt’s annual headline inflation rose to 14.6 percent, up from 13.2 percent in June.
The sudden resignation comes over a year before the completion of Amer’s final term, which was scheduled to end in November 2023.
Amer has served as the CBE’s governor since 2015. He led the CBE through turbulent times, including the floating of the Egyptian pound in 2016 which coincided with Egypt signing up to a USD 12 billion loan program with the International Monetary Fund. The move reduced the value of the Egyptian pound by almost 50 percent against the US dollar.
In recent months, leading financial figures and authorities, including the CBE, have been criticized for the handling of Egypt’s financial challenges, especially following the further devaluation of the Egyptian pound on 21 March 2022.
Egypt’s economy has been heavily affected by the conflict in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic.
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