Central Bank of Egypt (photo:Reuters)
The Central Bank of Egypt will offer $800 million in an exceptional foreign exchange auction on Wednesday for banks to finance commodity imports, the second auction of its kind this year.
The central bank sold $600 million in April to finance imports of wheat, meat, cooking oil and other essential commodities.
Wednesday's auction is targeted at supporting imports of commodities including tea, meat, poultry, fish, wheat, oil, milk, beans, butter and corn, as well as capital goods, spare parts, intermediary production components, raw materials and pharmaceutical and vaccine components, according to a statement by the central bank.
The central bank introduced forex auctions in December to help stave off tumbling foreign reserves fueled by two years of political turmoil.
Foreign reserves stood at $14.4 billion at the end of April.
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