Egypt's central bank held the pound steady against the dollar at its regular foreign currency sale on Tuesday as the currency remained stable on the black market. The bank sold $118.1 million at an unchanged rate of 8.78 per dollar. Egypt is facing an acute dollar shortage that sent its foreign reserves down to $16.564 billion at the end of August.
Egypt had roughly $36 billion in reserves before an uprising in 2011 overthrew Hosni Mubarak. That ushered in a period of political turmoil that scared away tourists and foreign investors, key sources of foreign exchange.