The exchange rate of the US Dollar has reached EGP 6.68 for selling and EGP 6.72 for buying in banks, EGP 6.69 for selling and 6.72 for buying in exchange offices plus the 1% commission. The 3 piaster increase came after the foreign exchange auction held by the Central Bank (CBE) closed Tuesday. During the auction $47.9m of the $50m offered by the CBE were sold at a cut-off price of EGP 6.6525. The head of the exchange companies section at the Egypt Chamber of Commerce, Mohamed ElAbyad accused the CBE of being the real reason behind the dollar shortage in the market which resulted in increasing prices, He pointed out that the CBE was acting in compliance with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which demands lowering the Egyptian Pound's value, reported Al-Masry Al-Youm. ElAbyad added that banks make pressures on the exchange companies by refusing to sell US dollars to them, noting that some banks require having Arab currencies like Saudi Riyal in return for the US dollar. Governor of the CBE Hisham Ramez denied targeting a certain rate for the dollar, assuring that his objective was a well-regulated exchange market. “We will take strict measures to maintain the rate of the Egyptian pound against the US dollar. We will also fight speculators in the foreign exchange market,” said Ramez in an interview with Zawya. “We will work during the coming period on increasing Egypt's US dollar reserves by removing all obstacles that local and foreign investors are facing, while reactivating monetary production and taking advantage of the liquidity available in the banking system," he added. Since last December, the CBE has been holding Forex auctions 3 times per week, a mechanism that aims at lowering the rate of depletion of foreign reserves which hover around $15bn compared to $36bn before the 25th of January revolution. The auctions began by offering $75m in the auction; the amount was later reduced to $60m and then to $50m.
