Price of gold in Egypt fell by 0.3 EGP ($0.033) per gram Tuesday in the wake of the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) recent decision to devaluate the pound from 7.83 to 8.95 against the U.S. dollar, Rafik Abbasy, said chairman of the gold division at the Federation of Chambers of Commerce.
During trading on the Egyptian market Tuesday, the price of one gram of 21 Karat was about 290 EGP, while the price of one gram of 18 Karat registered about 248.6 EGP, while a gram of 24 Karat gold registered 331.4 EGP, Abbasy was quoted by Al Ahram Tuesday.
The CBE has devalued the Egyptian pound by about 13 per cent Monday to combat the black market for the U.S. dollar and boost exports. The currency was devalued to 8.85 pounds from the official rate of 7.73 pounds in a $200 million auction Monday.
“The decline in gold prices is attributed to the decline in the exchange rate of the U.S. dollar to the Egyptian pound in the black market following the CBE’s decision, Nady Naguib, secretary general of the gold traders division at the Cairo Chamber of Commerce was quoted by Youm7 Monday.
The most important factors affecting the price of gold in Egypt are the economic and political situations, the instability of oil prices, in addition to the instability of the foreign currency exchange rate, according to Naguib.
