Cairo – Mubasher: The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) at the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) on Thursday kept interest rates unchanged at 15.25%.
The CBE maintained interest on overnight deposits at 14.75% and on the overnight lending rate at 15.75%, according to an official statement.
The decision follows a recent report which showed that Egypt's core inflation jumped to 30.86% in January 2017, a record high in over a decade, following the floatation of the currency versus the dollar as per the government's deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
This marks the third meeting where the MPC kept rates unchanged.
In November 2016, the CBE raised interest rates by 300 basis points after dropping the US dollar peg against the Egyptian pound, and floated the currency.
This resulted in weakening the EGP and the greenback surpassing EGP 19, compared to the pegged price of EGP 8.8. However, in recent days the USD-EGP declined, ending Thursday, 16 February 2017 at nearly EGP 16.08.
The CBE also kept rates unchanged at its 29 December meeting.
In its statement, the CBE noted that it expects rates to decline soon.
