The Egyptian government sold $1.1 billion of one-year dollar treasury bills at an auction on Monday, with the average yield dropping to 2.474 per cent, the central bank said.

Submitted bids amounted to $1.37 billion. The Ministry of Finance had set the issue size at $800 million.

On January 12, Egypt sold $1.07 billion of the same maturity at 2.593 per cent.

The bank introduced dollar-denominated T-bills in November 2011 after a popular uprising chased away most foreign investors.

The government has mainly turned to the local money market to finance its public deficit but the ability of local banks to lend the government Egyptian pounds has been stretched to the limit. - Reuters