Egypt central bank weakens local currency to 7.83 pounds to dollar

Egypt’s central bank has allowed the Egyptian pound to weaken in its latest dollar auction to 7.83 per dollar from 7.73, traders told Reuters Thursday.

Egypt has been faced with a currency crisis exacerbated by what many economists consider to be an overvalued pound, the maintenance of which has cost the country billions in currency reserves since the 2011 uprising.

Foreign currency reserves, which stood at about $36 billion before the 2011 uprising, were $16.335 billion at the end of September despite billions of dollars in Gulf Arab aid since mid-2013.