CAIRO: The Egyptian pound strengthened against the dollar at a central bank sale of foreign currency on Thursday, but was flat on the black market.
The central bank sold $38.3 million to banks at the auction, with a cut-off price of 6.9504 to the dollar, compared with 6.9505 pounds at Wednesday's auction. On the black market, the dollar was offered at around 7.36 on Thursday, a market participant said.
The pound has been under pressure during three years of political turmoil. Egypt's foreign currency reserves stood at about $17.3 billion pounds in February, down from $36 billion before the uprising that led to President Hosni Mubarak's overthrow in 2011.
The central bank introduced dollar currency sales over a year ago.
In January, it held a $1.5 billion exceptional auction, its largest ever, to restock the market with dollars and curb unofficial currency trading.
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