Central Bank of Egypt to Discuss Interest Rates Tomorrow

Investors and banking sector workers are anticipating tomorrow's meeting of the Central Bank of Egypt as the board will discuss the interest rates.

The Monetary Policy Committee at the CBE will decide the new interest rates, following the announcements of the major banks globally.

The upcoming meeting will be the fifth of the committee for 2023 out of its annual 8 ones.

Last June, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) maintained interest rates unchanged in its final meeting of FY2022/2023 which ended on 30 June.

The MPC maintained the overnight deposit rate, overnight lending rate and the rate of the main operation unchanged at 18.25 percent, 19.25 percent and 18.75 percent, respectively.

The discount rate was also kept unchanged at 18.75 percent.

The CBE attributed the decision to recent readings on inflation and real GDP growth.

“Domestically, growth of real economic activity moderated to 3.9 percent in Q4 2022 compared to 4.4 percent in Q3 2022, indicating that growth during the first half of the fiscal year 2022/23 registered 4.2 percent. Detailed figures for Q4 2022 show growth was mainly driven by the positive contribution of net exports, in line with exchange rate developments,” the CBE explained.

Additionally, the real GDP growth continues to be driven by private sector economic activity, supported by the positive contributions of trade, agriculture and construction, according to the CBE.