Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris has urged the government to align the official pound rate with the plunging black-market rate to address the nation’s ongoing foreign currency shortage, Bloomberg reported.

“Postponing reforms is a disaster that will increase the extent of the critical situation we are in,” the news agency said, citing the businessman’s Arabic-language post on social media platform X.

The Egyptian pound recently depreciated to 68-70 per dollar, over 50% weaker than the official rate of nearly 30.9.

“The right way is to start from the black market rate,” Sawiris said, asserting that equalising the two rates will encourage people to use official channels for selling their dollars.

The report said that analysts expect Egypt to undergo its fourth devaluation since early 2022 in the first quarter of 2024.

Despite securing a $3 billion rescue package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over a year ago, Cairo has faced delays in two reviews, with the lender urging a more flexible exchange rate and fulfillment of promised reforms by the authorities.

(Editing by Brinda Darasha; brinda.darasha@lseg.com)