CAIRO, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Egypt's central bank sold $74.9 million on Sunday to banks at a maiden foreign currency auction designed to slow the depletion of the country's foreign reserves, with a cut-off price for dollars of 6.2425 Egyptian pounds.

This represents a substantial weakening of the Egyptian pound, which was bid in the interbank market on Sunday at 6.185 pounds to the dollar. The bank had offered $75 million at the auction.

The central bank said the weighted average bid price at the auction was 6.2526 pounds to the dollar. On Saturday, the bank said reserves, which stood at about $15 billion at the end of November, had fallen to a critical level.

(Reporting by Patrick Werr; Editing by Susan Fenton) Keywords: EGYPT CURRENT/AUCTION

(patrick.werr@thomsonreuters.com)(+20-2-2578-3290)(Reuters Messaging: patrick.werr.thomsonreuters.com@thomsonreuters.net)

COPYRIGHT

Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. All rights reserved.

The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.