Cairo – Mubasher: The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) decided in its meeting on Thursday to maintain the current interest rates unchanged during March.
Overnight deposit rate and overnight lending rate were maintained unchanged at 16.75%, and 17.75%, respectively, while the rate of the main operation and the discount rate were both also kept at 17.25%.
The MPC’s decision is at odds with a variety of analyses, which expected the cut of the interest rates due to a group of factors including growth in inflation.
Earlier in March, Bloomberg reported that the Fed's announced patience policy regarding any hike in interest rates would encourage Egyptian CBE’s to conduct what may be the deepest interest rates cuts in the world.
Egypt’s annual headline and core inflation grew to 14.4% and 9.2% in February, respectively, compared to 12.7% and 8.6% in January, the MPC revealed.
The MPC referred to the sluggish global growth and the trending tight monetary policies, along with the geopolitical tension, which impacted the global economy.
In February, the CBE decided to reduce interest rates by 100 basis points.
