CAIRO, Mar 13 (Aswat Masriya) – The Egyptian pound strengthened against the dollar on the parallel market reversing a drop from last week, while it remained unchanged in a state auction on Sunday.

The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) offered $40 million and sold $38.8 million at 7.73 Egyptian pounds to the dollar, an exchange rate that has not been changed since November. Today's auction is the first of tri-weekly auctions held by the CBE.   

On the black market, the dollar is changing hands at between EGP 8.90 and EGP 9.25. Last week, the dollar skyrocketed on the parallel market and was close to changing hands for EGP 10 but the CBE took measures to alleviate the crisis.

The CBE injected $500 million to banks in an exceptional auction last Sunday to cover the imports of basic commodities. It also lifted the cap on foreign currency cash deposits and withdrawals for individuals and companies that import basic commodities.

The CBE's foreign reserves inched up at the end of February by 56 million dollars reaching 16.533 billion, still less than half of the foreign reserves Egypt had before the 2011 Uprising when they were almost $36 billion.     

Exports, an important source of hard currency inflows for Egypt, climbed after a series of drops throughout the past year. Trade Minister Tarek Kabil said Egyptian non-oil exports increased by 2.6 per cent in February and were worth $1.5 billion,  according to a statement from the ministry on Sunday. Exports had fallen by 16.5 per cent in 2015.