By Nayrouz Talaat

Egypt's net foreign reserves reached $18.9 billion by the end of August, which marks a slight increase estimated at US$36 million, according to the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) official website.

The CBE held an exceptional forex auction on Wednesday for the sale of US $1.3 billion to meet the banks’ requirements for imports from staple commodities, capital goods, spare parts, intermediary production components and raw material, and pharmaceutical and vaccine components, the website said.

According to CBE officials, the auction is the biggest since the start of forex auctions last December, which were held to monitor the domestic foreign exchange market.

In a press release last month, the bank denied freezing any of the deposits in the banking sector, ensuring that this 'will never happen'.

The bank added that the target of such rumors is to shake the Egyptian economy.