"This hasn't happened yet but its a long journey that we've
already made progress on, whether with China or India or Russia,
but to this moment no deal has been made," he added.
The dollar's decades-old dominance has been called into
question in recent months as global oil traders have sought
payments in currencies other than the dollar.
The shift has been driven by Western sanctions on Russia and
in countries, such as Egypt, that have a shortage of dollars.
Earlier this year, Russia added the Egyptian pound to its
exchange rate list, but several local traders told Reuters they
have yet to conduct any non-dollar transactions.
Egypt, a major buyer of basic commodities, has suffered a
foreign currency crunch that sent its pound falling by nearly
50% against the dollar, suppressed imports, and pushed official
headline inflation to 32.7% in March, shy of an all-time record.
Egypt's strategic reserves of wheat, vegetable oils, sugar,
rice and livestock stand at 2.6, 4.3, 4.0, 3.7 and 1.7 months,
respectively.
Moselhy said livestock imports from Sudan, which is
embroiled in a conflict between rival military forces, are
expected to continue despite logistical challenges, but the
ministry will try to diversify import origins, including from
Chad and Somalia.
The ministry had procured 365,740 tonnes of local wheat in
the local harvest season that started mid-April, Moselhy said.
The ministry's target for the season is 4 million tonnes, he
added.
Earlier this month, the supply ministry restricted the
trading of local wheat without ministry approval, as well as the
use of wheat as feed.
(Reporting by Sarah El Safty; Editing by Andrew Heavens and
Barbara Lewis)
(Adds dropped word in para 6)
By Sarah El Safty
April 29 (Reuters) - Egypt is strongly considering
approving the currencies of its commodity trade partners,
including China, India and Russia to try to lessen the need for
dollars, Supply Minister Ali Moselhy told reporters on Saturday.
"We are very, very, very strongly considering to try and
import from countries and approve (use of) their local currency
with the Egyptian currency," said Moselhy.
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