Beirut (APD) - The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) committed LE 800 million ($138.7 million) to establish the largest banknote printing house in the Middle East in a step to limit currency counterfeiting, a government official told the press last weekend.
The new printing press will allow for the Egyptian currency to be waterproofed and printed on thick, high-quality paper which will render it hard for counterfeiters to forge banknotes.
An official source in CBE said that this step would protect the Egyptian currency from increasing counterfeiting that had been made possible due to the availability of laser printers and other high-end printing equipment.
The first law concerning the issuance of Egyptian banknotes was promulgated in July 1960.
Egypt has been printing its own banknotes since December 1968 when the CBE had established a printing plant instead of printing abroad. The Bank also served some Arab central banks in printing their banknotes.
Note issue cover is currently composed of gold and Egyptian treasury notes. The relative importance of such components as at end of June 2004 was gold, 7.4%, and 92.6% in treasury notes.
The period 1990 -2004 witnessed large and continuous increases in note issue compared with previous periods. The average rate of increase during that period stood at 11.7%. [TS]
By Nadim Issa, APD Staff Writer in Beirut
© APD (Arab Press Digest) 2005
