Egypt to offer $75 million at foreign currency auction

Egypt’s central bank said it would offer $75 million to banks at a foreign currency auction on Tuesday, the same amount offered at its previous auction this week.

The Egyptian pound has weakened by more than 6.5 percent on the interbank market since the first auction at the end of December and is now trading at 6.6203 to the U.S. dollar. Tuesday’s sale will be the 13th auction.

The auctions are a bid to preserve Egypt’s foreign reserves, which have fallen to a critical level and now hover around $15 billion, covering roughly three month’s imports. The bank holds three foreign currency auctions a week.