The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) stabilised the US dollar exchange rate against the Egyptian pound at EGP 8.78 in its tender on Tuesday, while dollar holders remain confused as to why the CBE has not further devalued the pound yet.
The informal market predicted a further devaluation of the pound on Tuesday in light of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s remarks on Monday, in which he asserted that the citizen will soon be able to buy the US dollar at a unified price from the banks.
The informal market saw an increase in the demand for dollar on Tuesday morning as speculators predicted that the CBE would devalue the pound in its tender on Tuesday.
The US dollar reached an average of EGP 12.50 for sale on the informal market a few hours before the CBE’s tender, while it ranged between EGP 12.20 and 12.30 for purchase.
Some exchange companies increased the margin between the price of purchase and sale of the dollar against the pound to avoid any expected losses in case of any drop in the dollar price.
According to Osama El-Menilawy, the assistant general manager of the financial sector at a private bank operating in Egypt, the CBE directed banks that obtained dollars from this tender to allocate the foreign currency for special import requests of medication.
Through the tender, the CBE sold $118.8m to banks operating in the local market.
The banks will sell US dollars to their customers at EGP 8.88.
