Egypt pound inches weaker at Monday forex auction

CAIRO: The Egyptian pound edged weaker at a central bank foreign exchange auction on Monday but it strengthened on the black market.

The bank said it sold $38.9 million to banks at the auction, with the cut-off price weaker at 6.9858 Egyptian pounds to the dollar compared to 6.9835 at Thursday's auction.

On the black market, one dealer in central Cairo quoted 7.55 pounds to buy dollars and 7.60 pounds to sell dollars, compared to 7.58 and 7.63 on Thursday.

The central bank introduced the auctions at the end of December to help stave off a currency crisis and thwart a run on the pound. Since then, the currency has lost almost 11 percent of its value on the official market.