Egypt’s Central Bank Due to Review Interest Rates Tomorrow

The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) will convene its monetary policy committee tomorrow to look into interest rates. This will be the last meeting for 2013.
In its meeting held on Thursday, October 31, 2013, CBE decided to keep the overnight deposit rate, overnight lending rate, and the rate of the CBE’s main operation unchanged at 8.75%, 9.75%, and 9.25% respectively. The discount rate was also kept unchanged at 9.25%.
This move came after the central bank cut interest rates twice. On September 19, the MPC made a second policy cut in row by 50bps. Overnight deposit rate reached 8.75% while overnight lending rate reached 9.75%. On August 1, the central bank unexpectedly lowered its main overnight interest rate by 50bps, saying it was more concerned about boosting growth than taming resurgent inflation. The discount rate was also cut by 50bps to 9.75%.