Egypt’s pound slid through the 50-per-dollar threshold on Tuesday, before retreating, as global markets were hit by a war-driven risk rout and investors dumped exposure to emerging-market assets amid fears of an energy shock from the widening US-Israeli war with Iran.
Asian stocks tanked on Wednesday, led by a record 12% plunge in Seoul, as investors fled crowded chipmaker bets and priced in higher oil-driven inflation that could delay interest-rate cuts. Brent crude was up more than 13% for the week, trading around $82.50 a barrel as traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remained effectively shut and attacks hit regional energy infrastructure.
Against that backdrop, Egypt’s currency and markets came under renewed pressure from foreign selling.
The dollar selling rate at the National Bank of Egypt hit 50 Egyptian pounds during Tuesday’s session before easing to 49.93, while Egypt’s main stock index extended losses, dropping 2.03% under heavy foreign selling.
Foreign investors ended Tuesday with net equity sales of 1 billion Egyptian pounds (about $20.2 million) and net sales of 35.1 billion pounds (about $709 million) in treasury bills.
“This level hasn’t been seen since June 2025,” Mustafa Shafie, head of financial research at AcuMen Asset Management, told Al Manassa, attributing the pressure mainly to foreign selling in stocks and government debt tied to anxiety over the US-Israeli campaign against Iran.
The Central Bank of Egypt’s data show the dollar has not traded above 50 pounds since June 24, 2025.
The fresh break above 50 follows a similar pattern earlier in the week. On Monday, the dollar rose to 49.27 pounds at the National Bank of Egypt, up about 1.4 pounds from its Feb. 22 level, after renewed foreign selling of local debt, a banker tracking daily trading in government paper told Al Manassa.
Foreign investors are a major force in Egypt’s domestic debt market. The central bank’s latest available data (September) showed foreign clients held 2.149 trillion pounds (about $43.4 billion).
The banker said the current shock is unlikely to match the sudden outflows seen after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, when roughly $20 billion left Egypt’s debt market over a short period, but warned the direction will hinge on how long the regional conflict drags on.
Banking expert Mohamed Abdel Aal, a board member at the Egyptian Gulf Bank, previously pointed to foreign-currency reserves of about $52.59 billion at the end of January 2026 as a buffer against volatility driven by short-term capital flows, and said the dollar was likely to trade in a relatively narrow band for now.
Gold, which surged on war jitters and the weaker pound, pulled back on Tuesday. Al Manassa reported spot prices slipped to about $5,126 an ounce after dropping from roughly $5,335 earlier in the session, while Egypt’s 21-karat gold eased to 7,375 pounds a gram from 7,600 pounds a day earlier.
