An extra $2.5bn in Qatari financial assistance to Egypt has failed to stem the decline of the country’s currency or alleviate the pressure on the government of President Mohamed Morsi, The Financial Times reported Thursday, January 10. The continued drop in the pound came as Morsi named a new central bank governor, replacing Farouk al-Okdah, who had been in his post for nine years, with Hisham Ramez, a former deputy central banker. Economists said the Qatari injection that was announced earlier this week had in fact arrived in December as the central bank was struggling to stem the erosion of foreign exchange reserves, which have reached the critical level of three months of imports. The economy, battered during two years of chaotic political transition, has been further undermined by the confused economic policies of Egypt’s first democratically elected Islamist president.