Egypt

Depuis

29 juil. 2026

Catégorie

Taxes sur les transactions

Sévérité

1 sur 3

Ajoute 1,0 points à l’indice

Law No. 153 of 2026, published on 28 July 2026 and in force the next day, levies stamp tax on sales of securities listed on the Egyptian Exchange (excluding listed investment-fund units) at 0.5 per thousand on the buyer and 0.5 per thousand on the seller, residents and non-residents alike, or 0.25 per thousand each for same-day round trips; market makers are exempt. A companion package exempts residents' capital gains on listed shares from income tax.

Pourquoi cette mesure compte : A turnover tax on equity trades raises the cost of holding and switching into shares, one of the few domestic alternatives to deposits and Treasury bills.

Depuis

23 févr. 2025

Catégorie

Crédit dirigé

Sévérité

1 sur 3

Ajoute 2,0 points à l’indice

Banks lend to designated sectors at fixed rates and are compensated for the gap to the policy rate. Since a 2022 prime-ministerial decree, new schemes are managed by the Ministry of Finance. The priority-industries initiative approved by the cabinet on 16 January 2025 offers EGP 30 billion of loans for machinery and production lines at a reduced 15% rate for up to five years, with the ministry paying the difference to the CBE lending rate plus 1%. In January 2026 the cabinet raised the per-client cap from EGP 75 million to EGP 100 million. Legacy CBE schemes (middle-income mortgages, industry/agriculture/construction, tourism) still had EGP 96.9 billion of loans outstanding at end-June 2026.

Pourquoi cette mesure compte : Fixed-rate quotas channel bank credit to state priorities at administered prices instead of to the highest-return borrowers, with the interest subsidy borne by the budget or the central bank.

Depuis

15 avr. 2024

Catégorie

Restrictions sur les actifs réels

Sévérité

1 sur 3

Ajoute 0,9 points à l’indice

The central bank caps daily cash withdrawals at EGP 250,000 from bank branches for individuals and companies and EGP 30,000 from ATMs (limits set in April 2024, building on a 25 August 2022 circular). A temporary rise of the branch limit to EGP 500,000 in July 2025 was cancelled a week later. Banks must also set their own limits for foreign-currency cash withdrawals.

Pourquoi cette mesure compte : Limits on taking deposits out as cash keep savings inside the banking system, where they fund government borrowing, and make it harder to switch into cash, dollars or gold quickly.

Depuis

22 déc. 2022

Catégorie

Contrôle des capitaux

Sévérité

1 sur 3

Ajoute 2,5 points à l’indice

Since December 2022 the central bank has barred customers from obtaining foreign currency for travel without leaving the country and told banks to report suspected card misuse abroad. Circulars of October 2023 and February 2024 require card use abroad to be opened per customer, with banks stopping the card and reporting to the I-Score credit bureau if the customer cannot prove they were abroad; an August 2025 circular dropped the routine 90-day proof requirement for customers who notify their bank before travelling, but kept the sanctions where proof is requested and not provided.

Pourquoi cette mesure compte : Policing card spending abroad stops residents using pound-funded cards to buy foreign currency or foreign assets at the official rate.

Depuis

déc. 2022

Catégorie

Demande captive

Sévérité

1 sur 3

Ajoute 3,2 points à l’indice

Alongside public auctions, the Ministry of Finance has raised money through non-tradeable MoF notes placed privately with banks (including one-week notes); IMF data show private placements from December 2022. The outstanding stock fell from EGP 752 billion to EGP 475 billion over the year to June 2026, and public banks' share of MoF notes fell to 32% from 51% in March 2026. The authorities committed to cut the stock to EGP 375 billion by end-September 2026 and to zero by end-FY2026/27, and to stop issuing one-week notes by end-September 2026.

Pourquoi cette mesure compte : Non-tradeable notes placed directly with selected, largely public banks give the Treasury short-term funding that never has to clear in an open auction, tying those banks' deposits to Treasury financing.

Depuis

15 sept. 2020

Catégorie

Financement par la banque centrale

Sévérité

2 sur 3

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Article 47 of the 2020 central bank law lets the central bank lend to the government, on request, to cover seasonal budget deficits, up to 10% of average general-budget revenues of the previous three years, for renewable three-month terms repayable within twelve months. Under the IMF programme the overdraft is capped by a weekly ceiling; it stood at EGP 170.9 billion at end-June 2026. Separately, the central bank's lending to public agencies other than the Ministry of Finance (capped at its January 2024 stock of EGP 661.172 billion) is being repaid, with the authorities committed to reducing it by EGP 100 billion a year to zero by end-June 2029.

Pourquoi cette mesure compte : Direct central-bank credit finances the budget and public bodies outside market discipline, adding to money growth and inflation that erode the real value of pound savings.

Depuis

15 sept. 2020

Catégorie

Restrictions sur les actifs réels

Sévérité

2 sur 3

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Article 206 of the 2020 central bank law prohibits issuing, trading or promoting cryptocurrencies or electronic money, and creating or operating platforms to trade them, without a licence from the central bank's board. The central bank has repeatedly warned that no licence has ever been granted, so crypto trading in Egypt has no lawful domestic channel.

Pourquoi cette mesure compte : Closing off crypto as a legal store of value or route out of the pound keeps savings in domestic bank deposits and government-linked assets.

Depuis

15 sept. 2020

Catégorie

Contrôle des capitaux

Sévérité

1 sur 3

Ajoute 2,5 points à l’indice

Travellers may take out up to USD 10,000 (or equivalent) in foreign currency, plus any larger amount they declared on arrival; Egyptian banknotes may be carried in or out only within an amount set by the central bank's board, and sending Egyptian or foreign currency by post is banned. The same law guarantees residents the right to hold foreign currency and to transfer it through banks.

Pourquoi cette mesure compte : Caps on physical cash exports block the simplest way of moving savings abroad outside the banking system, where transfers can be monitored and rationed.

Depuis

20 juil. 2016

Catégorie

Biais prudentiel en faveur de la dette souveraine

Sévérité

2 sur 3

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The central bank's liquidity rules, binding from end-July 2016, require banks to meet a liquidity coverage ratio (phased up to 100% by 2019) separately in local and foreign currency. Tradable Treasury bills and other debt issued by the Egyptian government or the central bank in local currency count as Level 1 high-quality liquid assets at 100% of value.

Pourquoi cette mesure compte : Local-currency government paper counts in full toward the pound liquidity ratio, which banks must meet separately from foreign currency. This gives banks a standing regulatory reason to hold Treasury bills whatever their yield relative to inflation.

Depuis

28 avr. 2013

Catégorie

Contrôle des capitaux

Sévérité

1 sur 3

Ajoute 2,5 points à l’indice

Under a 2013 trade-minister decree (No. 235 of 2013, on tightening control over the proceeds of certain exports) and central bank rules of 28 April 2013, exports of listed goods must be executed through a bank operating in Egypt and proved to customs by a bank certificate, so the foreign-currency proceeds come back through the domestic banking system. Investment and Foreign Trade Minister's Decree No. 273 of 2025 added 65 more goods to the list (CBE circular of 25 June 2025).

Pourquoi cette mesure compte : Forcing export earnings through domestic banks keeps foreign currency onshore and under central-bank oversight instead of being held abroad by exporters.

Depuis

24 déc. 2012

Catégorie

Biais prudentiel en faveur de la dette souveraine

Sévérité

2 sur 3

Ajoute 3,0 points à l’indice

Under the central bank's Basel II capital rules, banks may assign a 0% risk weight to claims in Egyptian pounds on the Egyptian government (Treasury, government administration, local government and service authorities) and on the central bank, and to government and central-bank debt instruments issued in local currency. Foreign-currency government debt is weighted by rating.

Pourquoi cette mesure compte : Banks need no capital against local-currency sovereign holdings, which makes Treasury bills and bonds cheaper to hold than private loans and supports banks' large appetite for government paper.

Depuis

22 févr. 2021

Catégorie

Crédit dirigé

Sévérité

2 sur 3

Non pris en compte dans l’indice

A central bank circular of 22 February 2021 required each bank to raise lending to micro, small and medium enterprises from 20% to 25% of its credit portfolio (as of December 2020), with 10% for small firms. The requirement was extended to 31 December 2023 and, by board decision of 16 January 2024, to 31 December 2024. No later extension appears among the central bank's published circulars, so the rule is treated as expired by its own terms.

Pourquoi cette mesure compte : A quota fixes a share of bank credit for sectors chosen by the state, regardless of the risk-adjusted return, and reduces credit available to other borrowers.