The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has postponed its 60th periodic FX auction from Thursday to next Monday. Sources said CBE cancelled its regular FX auctions on Wednesday and Thursday because it offered US$ 800 million to local banks at an exceptional auction yesterday to address the banks' needs to finance the import of basic goods. This is the second exceptional FX auction conducted by the central bank after it earlier offered US$ 600 million at the end of last April at another exceptional auction which contributed to the retreat in the value of dollar in the black market to EGP 7.30 from EGP 7.95. The central bank conducts periodic FX auctions on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays since the appointment of Hisham Ramez as governor of the bank which offers US$ 40 million at every FX auction. The US dollar crossed the borders of 7 Egyptian pounds at the end of last week. It has broken a new record in the Egyptian market, hitting EGP 6.9819 for buying and EGP 7.012 for selling. The dollar's price has largely surged against the Egyptian pound concurrently with the implementation of FX auction mechanism as the dollar's price was EGP 6.37 and then reached EGP 7.012.
