Egypt’s Central Bank (CBE) decided on Thursday to float the pound against the US dollar and temporarily devaluing the current exchange rate by 48 percent to be set at EGP 13, the CBE stated on its website.

The CBE has set the new exchange rate until holding an exceptional forex auction at 1.00 CLT to leave the price for "the supply-and-demand mechanism".

According to the statement, the CBE has allowed the local banks to fluctuate within a10-percent margin up and down from the the above-mentioned exchange rate until the auction.

The pound has held steady against the dollar at 8.78 at the Central Bank of Egypt’s weekly auctions since a 13.5 percent devaluation in March.

The Egyptian pound has been noticeably strengthened against the US dollar on the black market over the last two days.

A trader in Cairo who asked to be anonymous told Ahram Online on Wednesday that the dollar’s rate has been significantly declining over the past two days to register around EGP 15 down from EGP 18.40 on Monday.