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Egypt warns of $8bn outflow

07 February 2011 07:36 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA-Economics. As much as US$8 billion (Dh29.38bn) could flood out of Egypt’s banking system in the next two weeks, the country’s central bank warns, The National reported.

The alarm was raised over the possibility of investors and Egyptian residents withdrawing their money in the wake of 13 days of demonstrations against the government.

Outflows from banks yesterday, however, were not as heavy as had been feared.

Hisham Ezz al Arab, the chairman of Commercial International Bank Egypt (CIB), said money leaving his bank yesterday was just a fifth of the CIB’s forecasts.

"The most difficult time is the first day," he said. "But today the capital outflows were not even 20 per cent of the estimates we had for when banks re-opened â€¦ The amount was minimal compared with our expectations."

He said customers came into branches yesterday morning to withdraw money and make payments. CIB is the largest private bank in Egypt.

"Today people were getting back to business," he said. "A lot of things have changed forever in this country in a positive way, but life has to go on."