CAIRO, May 4 (Aswat Masriya) - Egypt's central bank announced on Monday the sale of $500 million on the interbank market to "clear all outstanding strategic staple food commodities" as the month of Ramadan approaches. 

The Islamic holy month of Ramadan, in which Muslims fast daily from dawn to dusk, is due to be observed in mid-June.

The interbank is a global market for trading currencies and this is the third month in a row in which Egypt resorts to it to meet the need for goods. 

On April 5, the central bank announced the sale of $281 million and on March 1, the bank said it sold $420 million on the interbank market to meet the needs for "goods namely, staple commodities, raw materials and pharmaceuticals."

Egyptian imports of wheat in the first half of the ongoing fiscal year 2014/15, were worth $1.15 billion, corn imports were worth 730.5 million dollars and imports of pharmaceuticals were worth $1.3 billion, according to data provided by the central bank.