The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has injected around $16 billion into domestic banks from November 2015 to April through regular and exceptional forex auctions, a statement from the presidency said on Tuesday, following a meeting between the president and the governor of the bank.

According to the statement, the banking sector has allocated around $34 billion for imports of basic commodities and pharmaceuticals and to clear the ministries’ foreign backlogs throughout those months. 

During their meeting, CBE Governor Tarek Amer told president Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi that the CBE and the finance ministry have agreed to tap the international bond market in order to back the country's foreign currency reserves and support monetary polic, to stabilize prices and to reduce the budget deficit.

Last February, then-finance minister Hany Kadry Dimian said the government hopes to return to the international bond market with a debt issue by the end of June.

In June 2015, Egypt raised $1.5 billion in a ten-year bond issuance at a yield of 6 percent.

Egypt's net foreign reserves rose to $17.52 billion at the end of May compared to $16.5 billion at end of March.