(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Egypt appointed Hisham Ramez to take over as governor of a central bank that's fighting to preserve public confidence in the pound after it slid to a record low.
President Mohamed Mursi nominated Ramez late on Thursday after accepting the resignation of Farouk El Okdah. The outgoing chief said he had planned for some time to retire. Ramez will take charge on February 3 and serve until November 2015 if the appointment is approved by Egypt's upper house of parliament.
The pound has slid more than five per cent in two weeks. The plunge comes after two years in which the central bank kept the currency stable through the political instability that followed the uprising against Hosni Mubarak, spending about 60 per cent of Egypt's foreign reserves in the period.
Seeking to shield its remaining $15 billion stockpile, the bank introduced daily dollar auctions last month to cap the amount lenders can buy.
Amir Albeir, a 49-year-old electrician, voices the kind of concerns about the currency that authorities are seeking to allay. He says he changed about 220,000 Egyptian pounds ($34,000) to dollars three weeks ago and bought gold worth a similar amount, making the move after seeing others convert their savings.
"I saw the pound losing its value, and that scared me," Albeir said in an interview. "The situation isn't good, so it's very likely that the pound will depreciate even more."
He said he didn't deposit the dollars he bought in a bank, and plans to buy more soon.
The central bank's role, usually focused on inflation, "switched to exchange-rate stability" in the period since the 2011 uprising, Said Hirsh, head of economics at Maplecroft, a UK-based risk adviser, said in response to e-mailed questions. Policy probably won't change much under Ramez, he said.
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