The Egyptian pound weakened further against the dollar on Thursday as some banks took advantage of a loosening of restrictions and began addressing customers' forex needs for non-essential goods and temporary overdrafts. Banks were selling the dollar at 18.10 pounds at 1:40 pm (1140 GMT), after closing at 17.95 on Wednesday. A severe shortage of dollar liquidity when markets opened for the first time after the float had resulted in low volumes and saw the pound weaken to 18 versus the dollar. "It is still a liquidity market as well, not a price based one. The central bank's Monetary Policy Committee held benchmark interest rates steady at its meeting on Nov. 24.

Source: Egypt Independent December 02, 2016 11:10 UTC