What's happened to the LE

[crewmeal]

I can hardly believe my eyes, looking at the exchange rate £1 = 39.06LE!!! Whats going on? Will the locals be charging more for their services? It must be a good time to holiday in Egypt.

[A-Four]

The world is entering a very difficult period, some say it could be similar to the financial crisis of 2008, though I'm not so sure, but many of the small provincial banks in the U.S.A. will continue to go bust as soon as the fed increase rates there later this week. The BofE I expect will also increase rates by 0.25 on Thursday.

Some may remember at the end of last year, I suggested that anyone living in Egypt should exchange any spare LE money and buy gold, had they done so that investment would now be worth almost 50% more in just over four months, compare that with the annual LE bank bond market. This is the reason the LE is in such a dreadful state.

Earlier this week we learnt that the Egyptian government has limited the amount of gold allowed to enter the country,.......BIG mistake,.......expect 50LE to £ soon. How the poor, and very people of Egypt are coping with this is impossible to imagine.

[Chris]

This article from today's Guardian throws some light on the economic woes of Egypt:

https://www.theguardian.com/global-deve ... to-poverty

[Teddyboy]

"How the poor, and very people of Egypt are coping with this is impossible to imagine."

Same here! I'm genuinely fearful for some of my financially disadvantaged friends in Luxor. Whilst I do try to help one or two, I'm finding it more difficult to do so in these straightened times. My own pension in
come is not rising to be anywhere near even the minimum wage!

[Dusak]

If your a tourist it boom time spending wise, if your an ex pat requiring currency to travel it's an unmitigated disaster, now 64 per £...50 per $ and 54 per €. You can only buy off the black market as no exchange houses will sell you any, nor getting any out of your own bank is close to be imposable with lots of paperwork, a long wait and only very small amounts. The cost of day to day items are very high now, luckily I can still afford what I need/ want to buy, but the locals are really struggling to feed themselves.

[A-Four]

I expect a further devaluation of the LE by mid January, if not earlier or even just after the official final verdict for the presidential election. The present inflation rate is above 30% which is expected to reduce to around 20% next year,.......but I wou,d not take bets on that.

[Dusak]

The cost now for a 200gm block of butter is 210Le, sliced bread has increased by 80%, cost of a kilo of imported cheese, nearly 1,000Le, Liptons tea bags have increased by 50%, and now getting difficult to find in the shops, meat has out priced itself, no longer do you get free flies, milk has increased by 50%, the price of cooking oil has gone through the roof. Overall the cost of vegetables has increased by 30%, fruit only marginally. A chicken freshly prepared is over 200Le for a small one. Eggs 180Le a full tray, but fluctuates more than the daily exchange rates. I hate to think what these costs will increase too by the end of next. year.

[Teddyboy]

The price of eggs is greatly affected by what the Christian population are eating during any of their (200+?) days of fasts.

[crewmeal]

If they devalue the LE anymore it will send prices through the roof leading to imported shortages. No doubt many tourists wil be bringing stuff to relieve the situation.

[Dusak]

If they devalue the LE anymore it will send prices through the roof leading to imported shortages. No doubt many tourists wil be bringing stuff to relieve the situation.

Yesterday without warning all mobile phone costs increased, plus internet packages, mine increased by 60Le per month.

[John Landon]

While the Egyptian exchange rate appears to be quite alarming, its interesting to note that Turkey is not lagging far behind Egypt currently.

37.95 TL to the UK pound. !

We started going out there in about 2014, and for years, the TL hovered around the 4.6 - 6 TL to the UK pound.
Post Covid when we returned in September 2022 and the Lira had dropped dramatically to 19.5 TL to the UK pound.

My Grandson is heading out there with the school for a week, and so this is how I stumbled upon the current exchange rate.

Very odd, considering it is self sufficient in food, has many industries invested in that country, and is huge exporter of food and houshold goods.
It has the 17th largest economy in the world, compared to the UK which is the 19th largest. !

Strange.. :-/

[A-Four]

Very odd, considering it is self sufficient in food, has many industries invested in that country, and is huge exporter of food and houshold goods.
It has the 17th largest economy in the world, compared to the UK which is the 19th largest. !

Strange.. :-/

Very true how you view this, but although Turkey is a member of N.A.T.O. with a rather large army, its geographical position has always made it vulnerable. As I have written in the past, the real trading world is moving from West to East, being the Pacific and not the Atlantic. Turkey's main trade partners are China and Russia.

In truth Europe is a basket case, and the U.S although militarily powerful, trade will become the new war. We have already seen the domestic cost in Europe of a little war in Ukraine, where governments here have payed out to its population a small fortune in subsidies, plus the billions of $ of military hard ware sent there. As Russia's Putin puts it, a new type of 'Berlin Wall' is developing.

We only have to look at a map of the world to see where the new trade developments routes are planned. Trade routes are changing. You don't have to be Mr Dyson, vacuum cleaner man to realise where the future lies.

[Major Thom]

That devaluation must be terrible fro everyone, it was just under 11LE to the pound when we left Luxor, so everyone must be suffering, especially with the price rises too

[A-Four]

It truly is crazy that for the past month Egypt has been trying to negotiate a $3 billion loan, both in the U.S. and in Cairo through the I.M.F. just so it can keep its population with staple food supplies that are based on the international markets, in other words $ priced commodities.

Just before Christmas the EU wanted to send over €50 billion to the present day Ukraine, it was vetoed by Hungary. When we look at the present situation in the Middle East and the failure of the West to bring a peace to that region, I think we have to see there is something seriously wrong with our world as we see it today.

[A-Four]

I've been in Egypt a while now and can clearly see why the government has not devalued the LE. They must be raking it in, the $ is so desperately in demand. Everywhere you walk there is someone who wants to exchange hard currency, but if you are coming here soon, please be very careful, the police are on to this and a couple of my old friends have been arrested, and all money confiscated, even from the tourist. I will write more on this when I return to U.K. When the government do finally devalues, and large amount are exchanged at the banks,....questions will be asked.

In the hotel I am staying a can of coke is $4, at a local supermarket they are 10LE each, also some of the so called European restaurants have already changed their price in anticipation of what is to come, so beware.

[Who2]

From 5le to 60le (b.market) for one old English Pound £££. How time flies....?

Money has never been a big problem for me, except when one doesn't have any !
So help out the locals and your friends that have less..
"Mohammed smiles upon the compassionate" The Message 1976.

In those days there was no weight limit, I furnished a club from trips to Egypt.
One trip we bought 4 of these tents plus 4 bronze lights rugs and carpets..

The bar...


looking down upon our guests...

[A-Four]

I have always said on this forum that when you live in Luxor, or infact anywhere in Egypt, you willing know the poor and very poor within your 'ally', and you must help. I am a tourist now and am staying in one of the old international hotels, believe me, there are no people begging on the main tourist areas, there is not even one shoe-shine boys, no hassle on the main Corniche, even very little in the tourist market, it has all been banned and vigorously enforced by the police, and many without uniform, if you get my drift here.

When I lived here sugar was 2LE per kilo, it is now over 60LE per kilo if you can find it, and if you do it usually is sugar beet, so they must be exporting even their very fine high grade yellow sugar to bring in the $'s. The government has set up a sort of food bank in the centre of Luxor, as with most cities in Egypt, where with proof, the very poor can BUY double the amount of a needed food item for the single price, so still a very high price even if they can afford that.

[Dusak]

I was told just before I left that the quolity of the goods in these food halls are of poor quolity, my last 4 months there the hassle all the way along the river was bad to say the least, if they have clamped down, a good thing.

[A-Four]

Just so there is no confusion as to what Dusak has written above, I mean the main Corniche, the lower deck is a very different thing, which now is full of cafes from before the Winter Palace to almost the old Nova hotel, and yes much hassle.

I met a certain Egyptian lady there who is quite well known to so many on this site, now she has a real full time job, as a certain attendant, shall we say. I was pleased to give a photograph of her I had taken of her when she was only 14 year old, she is now almost 47 years.

[Chris]

I have to disagree with A-Four. Last night I walked from the Winter Palace along the Corniche to it's end past Karnak Hospital alomost into Karnak. I was not approached by anyone!
The Lower Corniche from just before the Ferry Terminal to the end (just before Karnak) now has many up-market and very smart Cafe's and restaurants.