By Mahmoud Salah El-Din
Cairo – Mubasher: Egypt’s local currency was devaluated to 8.90 per dollar for buying and 8.95 for selling after the central bank held an exceptional $200 million foreign exchange auction, said an official source at a private bank.
The dollar exchange rate officially declined to EGP 8.94 for buying and EGP 8.95 for selling, according to the online exchange rate by the National Bank of Egypt.
The unexceptional auction was an unexpected move by Egypt’s bank that bridged the gap between the official and parallel markets, said Haitham Mohamed, an executive director of an exchange company in Cairo, describing this monetary action as “a hard slap in the black market’s face”.
The success of this move is tied with providing U.S dollars through official channels for the coming three days, Haitham added, stressing that all transactions will be done through official channels only.
Exchange companies have, therefore, suspended its activities today, putting all eyes on the outcome of the coming days, he said.
Translated by Ahmed El-Sayed Ali
