Egypt C.Bank Raises US$ 40 Mln FX Auctions

The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) tendered US$ 40 million to the local banks at its 75th foreign exchange auction and its 57th since Hisham Ramez hold the office of the CBE’s Governor last February.

Accordingly, CBE has pumped US$ 2.32billion, through periodic auctions, in the foreign exchange market since last February.

It is worth mentioning that CBE had introduced FX auctions at the end of last year in an effort to provide the market with US dollar liquidity, following the country’s shortage of hard currency, which resulted from the political, and security’s unrests as well as the halt of the investment and tourism’s activities.

Informed sources announced that CBE instructed the bank to submit their applications in order to obtain their share from the auction from 9:30 AM to 10:30AM (instead of 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM. Whereas Central Bank of Egypt  informed  Egyptian Banks to close its branches early today in order to avoid any potential clashes between Pro- and anti-president supporters inasmuch as the Army’s 48-hour deadline given to the country’s president Mohamed Morsi in order to respond to protesters is about to end.

It is worth mentioning that CBE delayed its FX Auction last Monday because it was an official holiday (FY-end), whereas US dollars rates recorded EGP 7.0094 during CBE last FX auctions on Thursday; noting that  US dollars rates in the official market stood at EGP 7.0494.