The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) sold $37.8m of the earmarked $40m offered to banks at its 20th foreign exchange auction held on Monday.

The cut-off price was EGP 6.7082 to the dollar, slightly higher than the price at Thursday’s auction.

Since last December, the Central Bank has been holding forex auctions three times per week, a procedure which aims to lower the rate of depletion in foreign reserves, which hover at around $15bn compared to $36bn before the 25 January Revolution.

The auctions began by offering $75m, which was later reduced to $60m and then $50m.

Osama Al-Manyalawy, assistant treasury manager at the Arab Banking Corporation (ABC), said CBE offered $175m last week, and that it normally offers $150m per week.

Al-Manyalawy added that the price of the dollar was increasing at a slower rate than before. “It used to jump six piastres each time, now the difference is one piastre or less,” he said. “Last week started and ended with the same rate, and we’ll wait to see what happens at the end of this week,” he said.