OREANDA-NEWS. February 02, 2015.Egypt's pound weakened to 7.51 per dollar from 7.49 at the last sale at a central bank auction on Sunday, hitting the weakest level it has been allowed to reach since auctions began in December 2012.

The bank offered 40 million dollars and sold 38.4 million at a cut-off price of 7.5101 pounds per dollar, it said.

The rates at which banks are allowed to trade dollars are determined by the results of central bank sales, giving the bank effective control over official exchange rates, though there remains an active black market in the pound.

Egypt's central bank last week gave banks permission to widen the band around the official rate at which they can trade dollars, to 10 piasters above or below the official rate from 3 piasters.

Expectations that the bank will devalue have grown since it announced a surprise 50-basis-point cut in benchmark interest rates this month. The bank said plummeting global oil prices had eased the inflation outlook.