Egypt Billionaire Urges Devaluation and Warns of ‘Disaster’
- Sawiris says authorities should match black market rate
- Pound is about 50% cheaper on black market than official rate
Naguib Sawiris
Photographer: Asad Zaidi/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris criticized delays in enacting a long-awaited devaluation of the pound, suggesting authorities match the spiraling black market rate to end the nation’s chronic foreign-currency shortage.
Postponing reforms is “a disaster that will increase the extent of the critical situation we are in,” Sawiris said in an Arabic-language post on social media platform X. Egypt’s pound has plunged on the parallel market to 68-70 per dollar in recent days, leaving it more than 50% weaker than the official rate of about 30.9.