CAIRO: The Egyptian pound strengthened marginally against the dollar after the government released relatively stable inflation figures for June.

 

Annual urban inflation climbed to 10.7 percent from 10.5 percent in May, down from 13.2 percent at the end of December, the state statistics agency said over the weekend.

"Inflation figures are getting better. They are moving toward the single digits faster than we thought," a foreign exchange trader at an Egyptian bank said.

The pound, which strengthened to 5.6955 to the dollar from 5.6960 before the weekend, has tracked the euro down against the dollar over the last two months, but was unaffected by the euro’s decline on Monday ahead of a stress test results on 91 European banks due later this month.

"I think the pound will have a stable time until the stress test results. That will be a good indication of what will happen to the euro," the trader said.