The Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) keeps interest rates unchanged at MPC’s 1st meeting of 2023

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The Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has maintained interest rates at its first meeting in 2023, according to a press release on February 2nd.

The MPC kept the overnight deposit rate, overnight lending rate, and the rate of the main operation unchanged at 16.25%, 17.25%, and 16.75%, respectively.

The CBE said that this decision is to assess the impact of the implemented front-loaded tightening policies in a data-driven manner.

“The outlook for international commodity prices remains uncertain, as several factors contribute to upside and downside pressures. Notable factors include the expected global economic slowdown, the loosening of COVID-19 restrictions in China, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict,” the central bank said.

In 2022, the CBE hiked rates by 800 basis points (bps), of which 500 bps were in the fourth quarter of last year to tame the accelerating inflation.

On January 10th, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) announced that Egypt’s annual headline inflation rate increased to 21.9% in December 2022, compared to 6.5% in December 2021.