The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has delayed its 17th FX auction on Monday for the second consecutive time, on the second day of the newly-appointed Governor Hisham Ramez at CBE, sources said. A number of bankers and forex experts affirmed that stabilizing the forex market is one of the main challenges facing the new governor in the current period. CBE delayed its 17th FX auction yesterday after it was slated to conduct three FX auctions this week: on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Some experts expected Ramez to take the required procedures to stabilize the forex market so as to avoid a potential collapse of the Egyptian pound. The value of dollar highly surged after launching the new system at the end of last December. The value of dollar registered 6.37 (Sell price) at the beginning of launching the new system and hiked to EGP 6.81 (sell price). The total amounts that CBE offered in previous FX auctions are as follows:
Date Offer Value Sunday, December 30th, 2012 US$ 75 million Monday, December 31th, 2012 US$ 75 million Wednesday, January 2nd, 2013 US$ 75 million Thursday, January 3rd, 2013 US$ 75 million Sunday, January 6th, 2013 US$ 60 million Tuesday, January 8th, 2013 US$ 60 million Wednesday, January 9th, 2013 US$ 50 million Thursday, January 10th, 2013 US$ 50 million Sunday, January 13th, 2013 US$ 75 million Tuesday, January 15th, 2013 US$ 75 million Thursday, January 17th, 2013 US$ 75 million Sunday, January 29th, 2013 US$ 75 million Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013 US$ 75 million Sunday, January 27th, 2013 US$ 50 million Tuesday, January 29th, 2013 US$ 50 million Thursday, January 31st, 2013 US$ 50 million Total Value US$ 1.07 billion