The Interior Ministry’s financial crimes investigations unit apparently verbally informed FX bureaus that they are to stop operating after iftar during Ramadan for an unnamed “security reason,” bureau heads tell Al Mal. The MOI informed them that the security of any exchange operating past iftar “would be the [exchange’s] responsibility.” Most bureaus have refused to comply with the warning as business is almost non-existent during Ramadan days, said one operator.

The never-ending story: Policymakers “tried to trick the market, but ended up being tricked … The basic intuition of regular people, not to mention investors, is telling them that the pound will still lose more value,” Multiples Group managing director Omar El-Shenety tells Bloomberg’s Ahmed Feteha and Tamim Elyan. Feteha and Elyan also quote a number of people dealing directly with the parallel market, with one electrical store owner saying “most days, I make more money from selling [USD] than regular goods” and an Egyptian expat saying parallel market traders offered to exchange his foreign currency holdings at a premium.

Meanwhile, the EGP strengthened slightly on the parallel market to EGP 10.93 for USD 1.00 on Saturday, according Al Mal, while Al Borsa reporting a rate of EGP 10.92. On Thursday, the USD was selling for EGP 10.95 on the parallel market, according to Al Shorouk.

Al-Ahram, meanwhile, is living on another planet: We noted last week that the state-owned newspaper had begun reporting parallel market rates — and we figured it was part of a bid to shape market opinion. Well, in Ahram land the EGP is going from strength to strength, as the paper said it gained EGP 0.70 against the greenback on the parallel market. A buck is going for EGP 10.40, according to Ahram.