Egypt's Central Bank raised interest rates by 1.5 percentage points in its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting on Thursday.
"The Committee decided to raise the overnight deposit rate, overnight lending rate, and the rate of the CBE's main operation by 150 bps to 10.75 percent, 11.75 percent, and 11.25 percent respectively. The discount rate was also raised by 150 bps to 11.25 percent," the regulator said in a preliminary statement on its website following the meeting.
An interest rate hike had been widely anticipated by economists surveyed by Ahram Online and Reuters before the MPC meeting and in the wake of a sharp devaluation of the Egyptian Pound against the U.S. dollar earlier this week.
