The Egyptian central bank sold $38.4 million to banks in a foreign currency auction on Thursday, with a cut-off price of 6.8612 Egyptian pounds to the dollar. The cut off price at the previous auction held on Wednesday was 6.8504 pounds.

The centralbank introduced the foreign exchange auctions at the end of December as part of an effort to stave off a currency crisis triggered by a run on the pound, which has lost a tenth of its value since the start of the year.