CBE Offers US$ 40 Mln To Local Banks At FX Auction On Monday

The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) offers US$ 40 million to local banks on Monday, with a maximum of US$ 6 million to each bank at its 32^nd FX auction and the 16^th one since the appointment of Hisham Ramez, governor of CBE, sources said.

Sources expected CBE to continuously reduce the value of dollars offered at FX auctions as it was offering US$ 75 million, then US$ 50 million at two auctions and US$ 40 million at the latest auctions, bringing the amount that CBE offered since the appointment of Ramez to US$ 695 million.

Sources attributed this decision to the current deteriorated economic situation as the country’s foreign reserves fell to US$ 13 billion.

Ramez has changed the days of auctions as they were on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays under the leadership of Farouk El-Okdah and became on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays since Ramez held CBE.

The value of dollar witnessed a remarkable increase against the Egyptian pound since the implementation of FX auction mechanism at the end of 2012 as it surged EGP 0.44 to reach EGP 6.81, up from EGP 6.37. Then, the value of dollar began to fall against the Egyptian pound concurrently with the appointment of the new governor at the beginning of last February as the value of dollar dropped EGP 0.08 to register EGP 6.73 on the second day since Ramez assumed the responsibilities of the new position, but it rose again to reach EGP 6.78 this week.

The values that CBE offered in FX auctions under the leadership of Hisham Ramez are as follows: