CAIRO: The fall of Egypt's pound against the dollar will bottom out within the next month to six weeks and will not see it weaken as far as 7 per dollar, according to finance minister Mumtaz al-Saeed.

The central bank let the currency, long pegged to a tight band against the dollar, fall by three percent on Sunday and Monday. The pound stood at 6.35 in its last trade on the interbank market on Monday. Banks were closed on Tuesday for New Year's Day.

"I expect that within a month or a month and a half matters will stabilise completely," Finance Minister Mumtaz al-Saeed said in a television interview on Tuesday evening and posted on YouTube.

"I will not say that we will go back to six pounds, though this is a possibility. But at least this surge in the dollar will never reach seven pounds."