Cairo – Mubasher: The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) will hold a regular FX auction to sell $120 million to banks on Tuesday 2 August, in the framework of its periodical foreign currency auctions.
CBE has kept the exchange rate of the Egyptian pound against the US dollar unchanged at EGP 8.78 at the last week auction.
Expectations of a devaluation, which have been floating around since Central Bank Governor Tarek Amer said in early July that maintaining a stable exchange rate had been a mistake, have exacerbated a dollar shortage that had already hit investment.
Earlier, Amer ruled out a flotation of the pound for now but said a devaluation "depends on what the bank sees at the appropriate time". The comments added to the sense in the market that the central bank was preparing a move.
Egypt has faced a shortage in foreign currency since 2011 uprising and subsequent political unrest that drove away tourists and foreign investors.
That put pressure on Egypt's foreign reserves, which fell from $36 billion in 2011 to around $17.5 billion in June 2016.
