Money transfers from Egypt to China via Western Union have been curbed in recent weeks to stop importers bypassing capital controls in place at Egyptian banks to manage a dollar shortage, banking and Western Union sources in Egypt said. The restriction is the latest measure taken in Egypt, which relies heavily on imports, to tackle a shortfall in hard currency needed to finance its purchases. Following the limits of foreign currency cash deposits, some importers were paying to purchase cheap consumer goods from China via Western Union, a money wiring service typically used by low-wage expatriate workers in Egypt to remit salaries to their home countries. Two banking sources and two Western Union sources in Egypt said on Tuesday that a client could now transfer no more than USD3,000 a day from Egypt to China via Western Union, down from the previous limit of around USD7,000. "It is in the interest of the banks to transfer funds and benefit from the commission but they discovered that the transfers to China were made to import products and weren't regular transfers," one of the banking sources said. The limit to transfer through Western Union from Egypt to any other country is still around USD7,000, the source added. (Reuters)