# The Egyptian pound (EGP)
> Egypt's pound (EGP) shed more than 70% of its value from 2022 to 2024 through three devaluations before stabilizing near LE 50 per US dollar under IMF supervision.

**Meta:** type: reference · date: 2026-07-03 · heads:  · 4 takes · 3 lenses · 3 regions

## What it is

The Egyptian pound, ISO code EGP, symbol LE (from French "livre égyptienne"), is Egypt's sole legal tender, issued by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), which was established in 1961. As of mid-2026, one US dollar buys roughly LE 49-50. The pound subdivides into 100 piastres (qirsh), though piastre coinage is largely nominal at current prices. Egypt's money supply is large relative to hard-currency reserves, a structural imbalance rooted in decades of subsidy-financed public spending and recurring foreign-exchange shortages. That imbalance has made serial devaluation an instrument of crisis management rather than planned adjustment, with the CBE acting in practice under IMF pressure each time the reserve position became critical.

## History

Egypt linked the pound to sterling after World War II, then re-pegged to the US dollar at LE 1 = US$2.30 in 1962, adjusted to US$2.50 in 1973. A US$375 million IMF loan in 1977 triggered the first significant devaluation, and the 1991 ERSAP reform program settled the rate at LE 3.3 per dollar. A 2003 float reached LE 5.5 before an informal re-peg. The decisive break came on November 3, 2016, when the CBE declared a full float to unlock a US$12 billion IMF Extended Fund Facility; the pound halved within days to roughly LE 18 per dollar. Three further devaluations followed: March 2022 (to LE 18.5), October 2022 (to LE 24, concurrent with a new US$3 billion IMF EFF agreement), and January 2023 (to LE 30-32). On March 6, 2024, as a precondition for a US$8 billion IMF augmentation, the CBE adopted a managed float; the pound fell another 60% in a single trading session to LE 50 per dollar.

## Current state

As of mid-2026, the EGP trades at roughly LE 49-50 per US dollar, essentially stable for the past year after absorbing the 2024 shock. The CBE's overnight deposit rate stands at 19% and its lending rate at 20%, held at two consecutive monetary policy meetings as of June 2026. That pause follows 825 basis points of cumulative cuts between April 2025 and February 2026, as headline inflation fell from a peak of 38% in late 2023 to 13.4% by February 2026. In June 2026, however, the CBE revised its full-year 2026 inflation forecast sharply higher, to a range of 16-17% from 11%, citing an energy-price shock and the regional conflict's drag on tourism receipts. See [이집트 중앙은행, 금리 동결하고 인플레이션 전망 두 배로 상향](/ko/n/egypt-cbe-inflation-revision). Egypt's official foreign reserves reached US$67.5 billion in February 2026, up from US$59.7 billion a year earlier, supported by the IMF program and a US$35 billion UAE investment in the Ras el-Hekma coastal zone finalised in early 2024. The CBE's stated Q4 2026 inflation target remains 7% (plus or minus 2 percentage points).

## Relationships

EGP stability rests on four hard-currency pillars: Suez Canal transit fees (US$4.67 billion in FY2025/26), tourism revenues, worker remittances from the Gulf diaspora, and hydrocarbon exports including natural gas. The March 2024 flotation was underwritten by Gulf sovereign wealth, principally the UAE's Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company under the Ras el-Hekma agreement. The pound's outlook is directly entangled with [이스라엘산 가스 감소로 이집트, 11억 달러 규모 긴급 LNG 확보전에 내몰려](/ko/n/egypt-israel-gas-cut-lng), since disrupted gas exports to Israel tightened Egypt's current account after 2024. A weaker pound compresses real wages for Egypt's 105 million people, raises the domestic cost of imported food and fuel, and inflates debt-service burdens on Egypt's US$163.9 billion in external debt (Q4 2025 figure). Conversely, managed depreciation lifts the domestic-currency value of dollar-denominated remittances and improves Egypt's tourism-price competitiveness, giving Egyptian authorities a recurring incentive to allow, rather than defend against, a gradual weakening.

## What to watch

The CBE's rate path is the near-term signal. With inflation running at roughly twice the official 2026 target after the June revision, room for cuts is narrow despite GDP growth at 5.3% in H1 FY26. IMF program reviews, ongoing through 2026, govern the external anchor and the flexibility conditions attached to the managed float. Any erosion of Suez Canal revenues (vessel rerouting around the Cape of Good Hope already cut fee income in 2024-25) or a tourism shock from a regional escalation would test Egypt's reserve adequacy and the viability of the LE 49-50 band. Ras el-Hekma tranches from the UAE, disbursed in stages, provide the main near-term cushion against another acute reserve shock.

## Regional takes (batched by bias / lens)

### official record
- **World Bank (Egypt Country Overview)** (Global, en) — World Bank country dashboard: GDP growth at 4.3% in FY26, inflation at 13.4% in February 2026, foreign reserves at US$67.5 billion, and poverty and labor-market context for Egypt's 105 million people.
  Source: https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/egypt/overview
- **IMF (Press Release PR/24/101, Egypt EFF Augmentation)** (Global, en) — IMF Executive Board, March 2024: augments Egypt's Extended Fund Facility from US$3 billion to US$8 billion after exchange-rate unification, forex backlog clearance, and monetary tightening as core program conditions.
  Source: https://www.imf.org/en/news/articles/2024/03/29/pr24101-egypt-imf-executive-board-completes-first-second-reviews-eff-approves-augmentation

### research institution
- **PIIE (Egyptian pound devaluations since 1952)** (United States, en) — Peterson Institute for International Economics chart documenting Egyptian pound devaluation episodes and associated economic crises from 1952 to 2024, with the long-run EGP/USD rate series.
  Source: https://www.piie.com/research/piie-charts/2024/egyptian-pound-devaluations-have-induced-recurring-crises-1952

### Egypt press
- **Ahram Online (Past EGP devaluations)** (Egypt, en) — Al-Ahram Weekly timeline of official Egyptian pound devaluations since the 1960s, recording exchange rates and the IMF program conditions attached to each episode.
  Source: https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/519335.aspx

## Across the graph
- Related: [[egypt-dossier]], [[egypt-cbe-inflation-revision]], [[egypt-israel-gas-cut-lng]]
- Entities: Currency:egyptian Pound, Country:egypt, Central Bank of Egypt, Imf, Person:abdel Fattah El Sisi

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