Egypt central bank keeps key interest rates ‘unchanged’

Egypt’s central bank has left on Thursday its key interest rates unchanged at a meeting of its Monetary Policy Committee.

The bank kept its overnight deposit rate at 14.75 percent and its overnight lending rate at 15.75 percent, the fourth consecutive meeting where it kept rates on hold since it aggressively hiked them in November.

The central bank ditched its foreign exchange peg of 8.8 pounds per dollar in early November and, to help stabilise the newly floated currency, raised interest rates by 300 basis points.

Egypt had been struggling with a foreign currency shortage since an uprising in 2011 drove away tourists and foreign investors, both major sources of hard currency.

In November it sealed a $12 billion, three-year loan from the International Monetary Fund to support its economic reform programme.

Source: Reuters