CAIRO, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- The remittances of Egyptian expatriates rose by 19.2 percent to 29.1 billion U.S. dollars from early November 2016, when Egypt floated its currency, to the end of December 2017, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said Sunday.

"The increase reflects the confidence of Egyptians in dealing with the Egyptian banking system as one of the positive results of the liberalization of currency exchange rate," the CBE said in a statement.

Remittances of Egyptian expatriates are one of the major sources of hard currency in the country along with the revenues of the Suez Canal, the tourism sector and foreign investments.

Egypt has witnessed an economic slowdown over the past few years due to political turmoil and relevant security challenges, which led the country's foreign debts to increase by over 42 percent to hit 80.8 billion dollars by the end of September 2017.

The country decided in early November 2016 to fully float the exchange rate of its local currency Egyptian pound to deal with the shortage of dollar reserves and embark on a strict three-year economic reform program that includes fuel and energy subsidy cuts and tax hikes.

The floatation of the Egyptian pound encouraged the International Monetary Fund to support Egypt's economic reform plan by providing a 12-billion-dollar loan, half of which has already been delivered to the country.