CAIRO: Black market dealers have refrained from selling the U.S. dollar Thursday, in anticipation of further depreciation of the pound after Thursday’s move, a trader told The Cairo Post.
In a sudden mover, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) allowed the pound to weaken to hit a new official low of 7.83 per dollar at a regular foreign exchange (FX) auction on Thursday, compared to 7.73 in Tuesday’s sale.
The dollar was sold at 8.93 EGP at banks Thursday, and 7.98 EGP at exchange bureau, as the CBE gave permission to trade dollars up to 0.10 pounds and at 0.15 above or below the official rate at banks and exchange bureaus to respectively.
On the other side, the pound tumbled in the parallel market to 8.20-8.22 per dollar, another trader told The Cairo Post. “The pound is projected to jump to 8.5 per dollar next week,” he anticipated.
The Egyptian pound stabilized at 7.73 per U.S. dollar at the official market since two consecutive depreciations in July; each by 0.10 pound.
“The move will deepen the dollar shortage crisis as the central bank has no enough hard currency sources to meet the demands of market, and accordingly the local currency will dip further in the black market,” a senior banking official told The Cairo Post.