The US dollar's price has reached on Monday EGP 6.7379 (buy price) and EGP 6.7679 (sell price), compared to Thursday's data of EGP 6.7336 (buy price) and EGP 6.7637 (sell price). Commenting on the dollar's Sunday price, Belal Khalil - Deputy Chairman of the Foreign Exchange Division of the Federation of the Chamber of Commerce, said the US currency has hiked EGP 0.05. Such an increase is coincided with Egyptian Central Bank's 26th FX auction on Monday worth US$40 million to local banks. The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) offers US$ 40 million to local banks on Monday, with a maximum of US$ 6 million to each bank at its 26th FX auction and the 10th one since the appointment of Hisham Ramez, governor of CBE, sources said. Khalil attributed dollar's rise against the Egyptian pound to the higher demand as well as transferring the Arab and EU currencies to the US dollar. After assuming the responsibilities of his new position, CBE Governor Hisham 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.
