Egypt's central bank kept the pound's exchange rate steady at 7.53 to the dollar at a foreign exchange auction on Sunday where it offered $100 million, a significant jump from amounts usually offered.
The amount was needed to cover for pending payments for strategic commodities including food and pharmaceuticals, a banking source said.
The bank usually offers around $40 million at each of its regular auctions, held each week on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.
It has held the official exchange rate unchanged for four months since letting the pound weaken at the beginning of 2015. This weakening and other measures have helped reduce black market trading.
The bank said it sold $98.6 million at Sunday's auction at a cut-off price of LE7.5301 pounds per dollar, unchanged from Thursday's rate.
The pound was trading at LE7.67/6 to the dollar on the black market on Sunday, two traders said, largely in line with Thursday's rate ofLE 7.68. A third trader said the rate had strengthened to LE7.63.
Black market traders say volumes have fallen sharply since the central bank's drive to stamp out their transactions, which has included since February a cap on the amount of dollars that can be deposited in banks.
