The US dollar exchange rate against the Egyptian pound was stable at the beginning of Sunday at various major Egyptian banks, registering an average of 23.00 for buying and selling, after increasing last week.
The dollar rate registered at EGP 23.7 for buying and 23.8 for selling at the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), and 23.15 for buying and 23.25 for selling at Banque Misr.
At the Commercial International Bank (CIB), the dollar rate also recorded EGP 23.55 for buying and 23.65 for selling, while it recorded EGP 23.6 for buying and 23.7 for selling at the Arab African International Bank (AAIB).
The US dollar exchange rate recorded an average of EGP 19.7 on Wednesday, before it rose by EGP 3.15 by the end of Thursday at Egypt’s major banks.
It recorded EGP 22.85 for buying and 22.95 for selling at the National Bank of Egypt, EGP 22.90 for buying and 23.00 for selling at Banque Misr and the CIB, and EGP 22.85 for buying and 22.95 for selling at the AAIB.
The decline in the Egyptian pound started shortly after the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) announced Thursday it was adopting a more flexible exchange-rate regime as one of a host of new monetary policies.
Among its decisions, the CBE raised the key interest rates in an unscheduled meeting by two percent (200 bps) and said it would phase out letters of credit (LCs) for import finance by December of this year.
Two days earlier, the Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt Hassan Abdallah said the bank was working on setting an index for the Egyptian pound that will be linked to a basket of gold and other currencies besides the US dollar.
