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Army official sees Egypt foreign reserves plunging


    CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's foreign reserves will plunge to $15 billion by the end of January and the budget deficit will climb further, which could prompt a review of gasoline and other subsidies, a top Egyptian army financial official said on Thursday.

    "By end of January of next year foreign reserves will go down to $15 billion dollars," Mahmoud Nasr, a senior military financial official, said at a briefing on the economy. The central bank put reserves at $22 billion at the end of October, a level economists have said already offered limited firepower to cope with a looming currency crisis.

    "Only $10 billion dollars will be available," Nasr said, adding that $5 billion was already committed in payments to foreign investors or other obligations.

    (This story corrects the title of the official.)

    (Reporting by Marwa Awad; Writing by Edmund Blair)