National Bank of Egypt raises $11 billion from high-yield certificates in 9 days

Egypt’s biggest state lender, the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) has raised 200 billion Egyptian pounds ($10.9 billion) from the high-yielding savings certificates it introduced nine days ago, said deputy chairman Yehia Aboul Fotouh on Tuesday.

The one-year certificates, have an 18 percent yield, were launched on March 21 after the central bank hiked benchmark interest rates by 1 percent and depreciated the pound against the U.S. dollar by 14 percent.

The certificates are part of state efforts to stabilise the Egyptian pound after the pound depreciation move to try to unlock inflows.