The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) held on Thursday its largest-ever exceptional auction of $4 billion sold to banks to fulfill the needs of customers.

The auction is the largest in the bank’s history to be held at an open exchange rate according to the needs of each bank after its earlier decision to float the Egyptian pound, bankers told MENA.

In a statement earlier, the CBE said with the aim of achieving monetary stability and reaching a low inflation rate, a number of measures were taken, including shifting from a fixed exchange rate system to a floating exchange rate one.

As per the decision, all banks operating in Egypt will be able to set the exchange rate price of foreign currencies in order to end for good any trading outside the official market, the CBE said