Egypt's central bank says country's foreign reserves slightly drop to $18.59 billion

CAIRO – Egypt's central bank says the country's foreign currency reserves dropped slightly, to $18.59 billion at the end of October.

The announcement was reported on the central bank's official website on Thursday.

The level represents a slight drop from July, when foreign reserves reached $18.8 billion — their highest level in almost two years.

That increase came after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait pledged a total of $12 billion dollars in aid to Egypt following the popularly-backed July 3 coup that ousted the country's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

The three Gulf countries had been at odds with Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood group.

Still, Egypt's military-backed interim government faces increasing unemployment, widespread poverty and a burdensome and ill-distributed subsidy system.