CAIRO, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's foreign exchange reserves dropped by 3.91 billion U.S. dollars in March, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) announced on Thursday.
Egypt's foreign exchange reserves recorded about 37.082 billion U.S. dollars at the end of March, down from 40.99 billion U.S. dollars at the end of February, the CBE said in a statement.
It stressed that this was the first drop of Egyptian foreign reserves in the past 20 months.
In March, the Egyptian government used part of the foreign exchange reserves to cover the Egyptian market's foreign exchange needs and the exit of foreign investments and international portfolios, ensure the import of strategic goods, and pay the international obligations of the country's foreign debt, the CBE said.
Despite the drop in the reserves, Egypt is still able to cover more than five months of commodity imports, according to the CBE. ■