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 32nd FX auction and the 16th one since the appointment of Hisham Ramez, governor of CBE, sources said. Sources expected CBE to continuously reduce the value of dollars offered at FX auctions as it was offering US$ 75 million, then US$ 50 million at two auctions and US$ 40 million at the latest auctions, bringing the amount that CBE offered since the appointment of Ramez to US$ 695 million. Sources attributed this decision to the current deteriorated economic situation as the country's foreign reserves fell to US$ 13 billion. Ramez has changed the days of auctions as they were on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays under the leadership of Farouk El-Okdah and became on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays since Ramez held CBE. The value of dollar witnessed a remarkable increase against the Egyptian pound since the implementation of FX auction mechanism at the end of 2012 as it surged EGP 0.44 to reach EGP 6.81, up from EGP 6.37. Then, the value of dollar began to fall against the Egyptian pound concurrently with the appointment of the new governor at the beginning of last February as the value of dollar dropped EGP 0.08 to register EGP 6.73 on the second day since Ramez assumed the responsibilities of the new position, but it rose again to reach EGP 6.78 this week.
The values that CBE offered in FX auctions under the leadership of Hisham Ramez are 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 Wednesday, February 13th, 2013 US$ 40 million Thursday, February 14th, 2013 US$ 40 million Monday, February 18th, 2013 US$ 40 million Wednesday, February 20th, 2013 US$ 40 million Thursday, February 21st, 2013 US$ 40 million Monday, February 25th, 2013 US$ 40 million Wednesday, February 27th, 2013 US$ 40 million Thursday, February 28th, 2013 US$ 40 million Monday, March 4th, 2013 US$ 40 million Wednesday, March 6th, 2013 US$ 40 million Thursday, March 7th, 2013 US$ 40 million Monday, March 11th, 2013 US$ 40 million Total Value US$ 695 million
