CBE expectedly maintains interest rates

CAIRO – 16 November 2017: The Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to keep interest rates on hold on Thursday.

The bank put the overnight deposit rate at 18.75 percent and the overnight lending rate at 19.75 percent.

In a Reuters poll conducted last week, nine out of 10 economists said they the CBE to keep interest rates on hold for the third MPC meeting in row.

Egypt’s annual inflation dropped in October to 31.8 percent year-on-year, compared to 32.9 percent year-on-year in September, the official statistics agency announced last week.

Meanwhile, Egypt’s core inflation fell to 30.53 percent year-on-year in October, from 33.26 percent in September, according to data published by the CBE.