Egypt's central bank (CBE) announced Thursday it will only hold three foreign exchange auctions per week, instead of four. In a statement released on its official website, the bank said the auction days will be Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. It added that the amount for each auction will be announced prior to the auction. The bank held its Thursday auction for the sale of $300 million, it said in a separate statement. "The amount offered today will be directed to cover pending backlog, due for payments, for the import of Raw Materials, Production Requirements and Spare Parts," the statement read. The bank would previously offer around $40 million per auction, reported Reuters. Egypt's foreign reserves jumped to $20.525 billion at the end of April, an increase by $5.234 billion from last month, the central bank said on Wednesday. Egypt received deposits worth a total of $6 billion on April 22 from three Gulf nations; Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. The central bank has begun on January 18 allowing the Egyptian pound to weaken in front of the U.S. dollar for the first time in six months, reaching 7.56 dollars. It said the step was taken to eliminate the unofficial currency market, known as the black market. In a second blow to the black market, the central bank capped on February 5 the amount of dollars that can be deposited in banks. Central Bank Governor Hisham Ramez announced in an economic conference last March that "there is no black market in Egypt in the time being." Source: Reuters
