Reuters – The Egyptian pound weakened at a central bank dollar sale and on the black market on Monday, after hitting a six-month low last week.
The central bank said it sold dollars at a cut-off price of 6.9702 pounds, weaker than the rate of 6.9651 pounds at its last sale on Thursday.
Banks are allowed to trade dollars at rates determined by ranges set by the regular dollar sales. That gives the central bank effective control over rates in the official market.
Banks sold the dollar for as much as 6.9902 pounds for commercial transactions and 7.0102 pounds for retail transactions on Monday, a trader said.
On the black market, the dollar traded at around 7.49 pounds on Monday compared with 7.47 pounds on Sunday, according to a market participant.
The central bank sold $38.3m on Monday, it said. It had offered $40m.
Egypt’s Central Bank said earlier this month that it had covered the entire backlog of dollars owed to foreign investors seeking to repatriate funds from the country but did not say how much money was involved.
Egypt’s foreign currency reserves reached $17.414bn in March. That compares with $17.307bn in February and $36bn before the uprising that led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
Egypt’s annual urban consumer inflation rate stood at 9.8% in March, unchanged from February, the country’s official statistics agency, CAPMAS, said on Thursday. Egypt’s M2 money supply rose 17.02% in the year to the end of February, the central bank said last month.
The euro was offered for around 10.23 pounds on the black market on Monday, the market participant said. The euro was sold by banks at a retail rate of around 9.71 pounds on Monday.
