Following the Muslims' feast holidays, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has offered today its first foreign exchange auction for this week totaled US$ 40 million for local banks. The central bank is offering on Monday its 91st FX Auction since application and the 74th since Hisham Ramez hold the office as the CBE's Governor last February. Hence, the CBE has pumped US$ 2.940 billion through its periodic FX Auctions on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, in addition, CBE had also raised two exceptional FX Auction totaled at US$ 1.4 billion divided into two FX Auctions, one on April 15th worth US$600 million and another on May 22nd at value of US$ 800 million. Dollar VS Pound Meanwhile, the exchange rate of the US dollar against the Egyptian pound in the official market fell to EGP 6.99 for buying and EGP 7.02 for selling, whereas in the black market, the price of the greenback also dropped, somewhere in the vicinity of EGP 7.8 for selling and EGP 7.10 for buying backed by the Gulf aid packages which worth US$ 12 billion to support Egypt. The aid packages have been pledged by the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait which are highly expected to boost the national currency within the upcoming period in both official and black markets. Exceptional Auctions Bankers said the central bank is expected to raise an exceptional auction within the few coming days as a punitive steps against the black market and to fix the exchange market. FX Rates Elsewhere, the Central Bank has recently announced that the country's total net of foreign reserves has increased from $14.9 billion in June to reach 18.8 billion by the end of July backed by the grants and aids worth billions received from the gulf states in July following the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi.
