The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank decided Egyptian Thursday, keep Interest rates Without change, the day after the announcement International Monetary Fund He concluded his mission with a visit to Egypt.
The committee kept the overnight deposit rate at 27.25 percent, and kept the overnight lending rate at 28.25 percent.
The committee said in a statement: “This decision reflects the latest developments and expectations at the global and local levels since the previous meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee.”
She added: “Preliminary indicators for the third quarter of 2024 show real GDP growth at a faster pace than the 2.4 percent recorded during the second quarter of the same year.
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Economic activity expectations for the fourth quarter of 2024 indicate a continuation of its upward trend, even if it has not yet achieved its maximum capacity, which supports the downward path of inflation in the short term.”
She said that she believes that keeping the central bank’s base interest rates unchanged “is considered appropriate until a tangible and sustainable decline in the inflation rate is achieved.”
The IMF said on Wednesday that its mission concluded a visit to Egypt and made significant progress in discussing policies to complete the fourth review within the framework of the Extended Fund Facility.
The review, which could provide more than $1.2 billion in financing, is the fourth in the Fund’s 46-month loan program, which was approved in 2022 and increased to $8 billion this year after an economic crisis that saw high inflation and a severe shortage of hard currency.
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The Fund also said that Egypt “implemented key reforms to maintain macroeconomic stability,” including unifying the exchange rate that facilitated imports in light of the Central Bank of Egypt’s repeated pledge to maintain a flexible exchange system.
The exchange rate of the Egyptian pound witnessed fluctuations during today’s trading, and it fell against the dollar approximately in the middle of trading to 49.85 pounds to the dollar, according to data from the London Stock Exchange Group, but it ended trading without significant change, recording 49.62 pounds to the dollar.
The central bank has not changed interest rates since it raised them by 600 basis points in an extraordinary meeting in March as part of the loan agreement with the Fund. This increase came after an increase of 200 basis points on the first of February.
Egypt’s annual inflation rate was trending downward from its peak of 38 percent in September 2023, but it rose unexpectedly in August and September 2024.
Annual inflation recorded 26.2 percent in August, up from 25.7 percent in July, before continuing to accelerate to 26.4 percent in September, then 26.5 percent in October.
