CAIRO- Egypt cancelled an auction of 3- and 7-year treasury bonds worth 3.5 billion Egyptian pounds ($195.97 million) on Monday, its third such cancellation in as many weeks, central bank data showed.

Two previous T-bond auctions, also for 3.5 billion pounds each, had been cancelled after bankers and investors demanded high yields on the debt.  ($1 = 17.8600 Egyptian pounds)

"The finance ministry has been cancelling the bond auctions for the past few weeks due to higher yields than they are willing to accept," said one banker at an Egyptian bank.

Bankers had been expecting yields of around 18.8 percent in Monday's cancelled sale, the banker said.

Egypt aims to reach an average interest rate on government debt instruments in the current 2018-2019 budget of about 14.7 percent compared with 18.5 percent in fiscal year 2017-2018, which ended on June 30.

Egypt's funding needs in the 2018-2019 budget are about 714.637 billion pounds, of which 511.208 billion are in the form of domestic debt instruments and the rest are external financing from the issuance of bonds and an IMF loan.

(Reporting by Eric Knecht and Patrick Werr Writing by Aidan Lewis Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg) ((Aidan.Lewis@tr.com; +20-1001174410;))