By Mostafa Adel
Cairo – Mubasher: The Egyptian government considers fostering the strategic foreign reserve by selling 700 kilograms of gold to the Central Bank of Egypt, said a first-hand source at the Ministry of Finance (MoF).
"The MoF legal advisor studies the appropriate means to sell this public treasury-owned amount to the CBE as the existing MoF law requires holding a public auction for capturing the highest quote", the source told Mubasher in a phone call.
Moreover, this 21K gold amount was previously rejected by the bank as only 24K gold can be added to the foreign reserve as per the CBE by-laws.
However, this pre-requisite could be waived this time, the source concluded.
Egypt's foreign reserve rose to $19.59 billion by the end of September, compared to $16.56 billion a month earlier.
