Currency Auction by Egypt's Central Bank Nets $49.2 Million

Egypt's central bank sold $49.2 million foreign currency auction, at a cutoff price of LE6.7043 to the dollar. The cutoff price at the previous auction held, in which the bank sold $49.6 million, was LE6.7020. Thursday's auction was not originally planned but was announced after the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) revealed that international reserves fell $1.4 billion to reach $13.6 billion at the end of January.

CBE has held a total of 19 currency auctions since 30 December, when it implied that it could no longer use the reserves to support the local currency as they have dropped to "critical levels." Last week, in a move to slow the pound’s decline, the bank limited the pound's trading band in the interbank foreign exchange market to 0.01 pounds above or below the weighted average bid at the currency auctions.