Tomorrow, Thursday…the Central Bank will decide interest rates in its first meeting in 2024

Search rates have increased on Google for the Central Bank meeting tomorrow, Thursday, February 1, as the bank holds its first meeting in 2024, headed by Hassan Abdullah, to decide the fate of interest rates on deposits and lending. Through this report, we monitor some expectations about the interest rate decision tomorrow.

Banking experts’ expectations varied regarding the directions of the Monetary Policy Committee’s decision, as opinions were divided between the following:

– A trend that believes that the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Egypt will move to raise the interest rate by a rate ranging between 1% to 3%, in a direction from the committee to tighten monetary policy to contain inflation rates.

Another trend is that the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank will move to stabilize the interest rate at its current rates, especially with the beginning of a decline in inflation rates over the past months.

Central Bank of Egypt – archive photo

It is noteworthy that the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Egypt raised the interest rate in Egypt during the period from March 2022 to August 2023, by 11%, and the percentage increase in the interest rate in Egypt during the past 12 months was about 3%, as the bank fixed The Central Bank of Egypt raised interest rates during 5 meetings last year, and the interest rate was raised by 2% in the March meeting, and by 1% in the last August meeting.

The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Egypt, in its last meeting during the year 2023, on Thursday, December 21, decided to fix the overnight deposit and lending rates and the Central Bank’s main operation rate, at 19.25%, 20.25% and 19.75%, respectively. It also kept the credit and discount rates at 19.75%.

And it gets complicated Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Egypt A meeting is held every 6 weeks to decide the interest rate in Egypt, and it takes place on Thursdays. The number of meetings set by the Central Bank reached 8 during the year 2024.

It is worth noting that a mission from the International Monetary Fund is currently visiting Egypt, in order to conduct the first and second review of the Fund’s loan to Egypt and discuss increasing it by a value ranging from 5 to 8 billion dollars.