Reuters – The Egyptian pound was steady at a central bank foreign currency sale on Monday and remained unchanged on the black market.
The central bank sold $38.6m to banks with a cut-off price of EGP 6.9508 to the dollar, fractionally stronger than the cut-off price of EGP 6.9509 from Monday’s auction. The bank had offered to sell $40m.
On the black market, the dollar was sold at EGP 7.35 on Wednesday, steady with Monday’s rate.
The pound has been under pressure during three years of political turmoil. Foreign currency reserves were around $17bn in January, down from $36bn before the uprising that led to president Hosni Mubarak’s downfall in 2011.
The central bank introduced dollar currency sales over a year ago. Last month, it held a $1.5bn exceptional auction, its largest ever, to restock the market with dollars and curb unofficial currency trading.
