Egypt’s Central Bank holds interest rate steady for the first time this year

Egypt’s Central Bank holds interest rate steady for the first time this year

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the (CBE) decided on Thursday to keep the interest rate at its current levels for the first time this year, following two MPC meetings earlier in the year.

The committee decided to maintain the overnight deposit and lending rates and the main repurchase rate at 27.25 percent,28.25 percent, and 27.75 percent, respectively. It also kept the discount rate at 27.75 percent.

This is the third meeting this year, following two meetings in April and March that saw interest rates raised by a total of 8 percent, with 2 percent in February and 6 percent on March 6 in an extraordinary meeting that coincided with the liberalization of the exchange rate and the rise of the dollar exchange rate in banks from about 31 Egyptian pounds to nearly 50 pounds before receding to around 47 pounds in banks and exchange companies.

The annual core inflation rate, as calculated by the CBE, fell to 31.8 percent in April from 33.7 percent in March. The annual headline inflation rate, as calculated by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), was 32.5 percent in April compared to 33.3 percent in March.

The CBE, on behalf of the Ministry of