Egypt's central bank said not a single bank took up its offer for US$1 billion in seven-day repurchase agreements in the money market on Tuesday.
One Cairo-based trader said banks had been liquid for the last two weeks, and that only two or three were short, and even these had been able to cover their positions.
"I don't know where the liquidity came from. Perhaps it is because of the cancellation of two treasury bill auctions earlier this month," the trader said.
The bank had offered the repos at a fixed rate of 9.25 percent.
The central bank introduced the weekly repo offerings in March to keep short-term interest rates under control after the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak on 11 Februarya.
