Egypt: Central Bank Raises US$40 mln on FX Auction

The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has offered its first foreign exchange auction for this week valued at US$ 40 million for local banks. The central bank is offering on Monday  its 86th FX Auction since application and the 69th since Hisham Ramez hold the office as the CBE’s Governor last February.

CBE has pumped US$ 2.740 billion through its periodic FX Auctions on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, in addition, CBE had also raised two exceptional FX Auction totaled at US$ 1.4 billion divided into two FX Auctions, one on April 15th worth US$600 million and another on May 22nd at value of US$ 800 million.

Meanwhile, the exchange rate of the US dollar against the Egyptian pound in the official market has reached EGP 7.0015 for buying and EGP 7.0316 for selling, whereas in the black market, the price of the greenback fell, somewhere in the vicinity of EGP 7.12 for selling and EGP 7.15 for buying.

The Gulf aid packages worth US$ 12 billion to support Egypt pledged by the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are expected to boost the national currency within the upcoming period in both official and black markets.