As Egypt's Central Bank has not offered its 21st FX auction, the exchange rate of the U.S. dollar has witnessed stability against the Egyptian pound on Tuesday. The dollar's price has reached EGP 6.7180 (buy price) and EGP 6.7480 (sell price), compared to Sunday's levels of EGP 6.7150 (buy price) and EGP 6.7450 (sell price). The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has offered on Monday US$ 40 million to local banks so as to address dollar shortage at the banking sector at its 20th FX auction and the fourth one since Hisham Ramez became the CBE governor. The Central Banks's 20th FX auction on Monday has resulted in an increase not exceeding EGP 0.5 in the U.S. currency's rate against the Egyptian pound. After assuming the responsibilities of his new position, Ramez started offering US$ 75 million in a FX auction, then US$ 50 million and US$ 40 million today, bringing the amount CBE offered under his leadership to US$ 215 million. The decisions adopted by the recently-assigned governor have contributed to curb the significant rise in the dollar's value. Dr. Ramez has taken a number of procedures to curb dollar's constant rise against the national currency such as cancelling the 1% commission that had been placed on banks and forex firms, limiting the number of currency auctions to just two a week, and limiting the range of rates at which banks could sell and buy currency from one another. Upon his instructions, the central bank has also tightened the pound's trading band in the interbank foreign exchange market. Accordingly, Banks may now only buy or sell dollars or their equivalent to other banks in a band of 0.01 pounds above or below the weighted average bid at the central bank's regular currency auctions, the dealer said. Previously, the limit had been 0.5 percent above or below the average bid. The total value of dollars offered by CBE to local banks at FX auctions reached US$ 1.1 billion. The value that CBE offered in FX auctions under the leadership of Hisham Ramez is as follows:
Date Offer Value Monday, February 4th, 2013 US$ 75 million Wednesday, February 6th, 2013 US$ 50 million Thursday, February 7th, 2013 US$ 50 million Monday, February 11th, 2013 US$ 40 million Total Value US$ 215 million
