By Mahmoud Salah and Ahmed Allam
Cairo – Mubasher: Egypt's latest monetary policy decisions have paralyzed the currency black market, said five traders, Thursday, who preferred to remain anonymous.
"The trading flow is halted after the Central Bank of Egypt has liberalized the exchange rate", the traders clarified.
The US dollar exchange rate against the Egyptian pound registered EGP 13-14 in the black market after free floating the exchange rate, a trader told Mubasher, highlighting that the buying and selling activity is stopped and speculators are watching out for the impact of this decision on the market.
Earlier, the Central Bank of Egypt decided to liberalize the exchange rate regime to control any manipulation in the local currency market.
The Egyptian pound exchange rate against foreign currencies will be thus decided according to the market's supply and demand mechanisms.
According to the National Bank of Egypt, the US dollar (USD) exchange rate against the Egyptian pound (EGP) was placed at EGP 13.01 per dollar for sale and EGP 13.5 per dollar for buying
This decision was followed by a 3% hike in key lending rates.
Translated by Ahmed El-Sayed Ali
