Egypt's net foreign reserves rose slightly to US$17.546 billion at the end of June, the central bank said on Monday. Reserves stood at $17.52 billion at the end of May.
Egypt had roughly $36 billion in reserves before an uprising in 2011 overthrew Hosni Mubarak. That ushered in a period of political turmoil that scared away tourists and foreign investors, key sources of foreign exchange.
Egypt has run short of hard currency since a 2011 uprising drove tourists and foreign investors away. Reserves almost halved to $16.4 billion by the end of November.
On Sunday, central bank governor Tarek Amer announced that Egypt's current account deficit almost doubled in the first nine months of 2015/16 to US$14 billion from $8 billion in the same period a year earlier.
"The deficit… reached $14 billion in the first nine months of the previous financial year, from July 2015 to March 2016, compared with $8 billion in the same period a year earlier," Amer said.
