Egypt’s Central Bank Offers US$ 40 Mln at FX Auction Today

Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has offered on Monday US$ 40 million to local banks at its 66th auction and the 48th since Hisham Ramez hold the office of the CBE’s Governor last February.

Accordingly, CBE has pumped around US$ 1.94 billion in the foreign exchange market through its periodical FX auction in an attempt to provide foreign liquidity for the local banks so as to finance the import of essential commodities. Accordingly, the total volume of the auctions, in which CBE’s has pumped in the exchange market, reached US$ 2.02 billion.

In addition to pumping US$ 1.4 billion through two non-periodic FX auctions in which it contributed in reducing US Dollars rates in the parallel market; the first auction was by the middle of last April worth US$ 600 million and the second was two weeks ago worth US$ 800 million.

Following the last two non-periodic FX auction US dollars had witnessed relative stability in the market during last weeks, as US dollars have posted a higher rates of one piaster to stand at EGP 7.019, for the first time since the applying of FX Auctions System, up from EGP 7.012 before the auction. Whereas the average increase of US dollars rates per week reached one and a half Piaster coinciding with CBE’s FX Auctions.

Furthermore, In CBE’s last FX auction, on last Thursday, the exchange rates of US Dollars recorded US$ 6.9790.