I jumped Sales of Egyptian treasury bills for 91 days, to 87.07 billion Egyptian pounds ($2.94 billion) in an auction today, Sunday, compared to 14.67 billion pounds last week, with the continued flow of investors after a sharp decline in the value of the pound against the dollar.
Sales of 273-day treasury bills, which were also offered on Sunday, rose to 10.72 billion pounds from 135.6 million pounds last week, according to central bank data.
The central bank said that the average return on 91-day bills rose to 20.52% from 20.281%, while the average return on 273-day bills rose to 21.484% from 20.949%, according to Reuters.
The Egyptian pound fell to 32.20 against the dollar on Wednesday, from 27.60 at the beginning of trading, but it rebounded since then to 29.65 against the dollar.
At the beginning of the year, the dollar was less than 25 pounds. Until March last year, the pound was kept stable at less than 16 to the dollar, about 50% stronger than its current value.
Egypt is working to liberalize the exchange rate against the dollar in leaps and bounds, with the aim of achieving full floating of the currency, as it pledged to do to the International Monetary Fund under a $3 billion financing agreement in October.
Egypt has suffered a shortage of foreign currency since the war in Ukraine hit tourism revenues, raised the cost of importing basic commodities and prompted foreign investors to withdraw more than $20 billion from the economy.
Treasury bill sales increased for 182 days and 364 days in Thursday’s auction.
