Egypt central bank happy with level of pound: Official

Sub-governor says that while the bank has defended the local currency it is not targeting a particular rate

Egypt's central bank is comfortable with the current level of the Egyptian pound and is not targeting any particular rate for the currency, a sub-governor at the bank said on Wednesday.
The pound has fallen 4.5 per cent since the start of the country's January 2011 uprising, but economists say the drop would have been far deeper if the central bank had not defended the pound's value.
The Egyptian pound is currently trading at around 6.0920 to the US dollar.
"We are comfortable with the current currency valuation," Nidal Assar, the bank's sub governor for investment and foreign relations, said at an investment conference in Cairo.
Asked if the bank was targeting a particular currency rate, he said, "No. We don't target the currency or the (foreign) reserves, as they are related."
Economists say central bank support for the currency helped push foreign reserves down by more than half to around $15 billion.
Assar said the central bank does intervene in the currency "whenever we feel there is an excessive speculation on the market".
Reserves stabilised around mid-year when foreign investors had exited most of their Egyptian treasury bill holdings and foreign donors such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar agreed to send funds to support the Egyptian economy.
Fears that the pound could weaken further have made many investors reluctant to return to Egypt despite a more stable political environment since the election of President Mohamed Morsi.
Much could depend on whether Egypt can seal a $4.8 billion loan from the IMF. The government has said it aims to reach a deal within two weeks of talks set for the end of this month.