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

The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) offers US$ 40 million to local banks on Thursday at its 34^th FX auction and the 18^th one since the appointment of Hisham Ramez, governor of CBE. The value of dollars offered at FX auctions since Ramez held CBE reached US$ 775 million.

CBE decided to allocate a ration of dollars to each bank ranging from 10% to 35% according to its market share and volume of letters of credit, in an attempt to regulate the monetary market and supply each bank with its requirements with rationing the value of dollars disbursed so as to reduce the depletion of foreign currency which fell to US$ 13.5 billion at the end of last February.

The US dollar’s price surged this week against the Egyptian pound to EGP 6.8028 (buy price), compared to EGP 6.7858 last week, registering the highest increase since Ramez held CBE last February.

The value of dollar is close to that before Ramez became governor of CBE as it surged EGP 0.44 to reach EGP 6.81 since the implementation of FX auction mechanism at the end of 2012, 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.

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