Egypt's economy turning around? Not so fast | The Majlis

Egypt's battered economy has lost more than half of its foreign reserves - more than $18 billion - since the revolution. The balance  of payments finally seemed to be improving, though: The central bank reported a small gain ($92 million) in April, and a larger one ($302 million) last month.

Good news, right? Maybe not. Reuters dug a little deeper:

The reserves figure apparently includes $1 billion that the central bank received from a 15 May sale of dollar-denominated T-bills to local banks, money from that came from inside Egypt and does not represent an improvement in the balance of payments.
[...] This would indicate that without the $1 billion in dollar T-bills, reserves would have fallen by $700 million, traders and analysts said, a number that suggests Egypt continues to bleed from the political and economic turmoil of the last 18 months.

* username: rupertbu