The National Bank of Egypt (NBE) announced on Thursday that it will introduce two new high-yield EGP saving certificates following the central bank's decision to liberalize the exchange rate of the local currency. The move is an attempt to attract customers' cash liquidity, said bank chairman Hesham Okasha. The country's biggest public lender will offer a three-year maturity certificate at a yearly yield of 16 percent as well as an 18-month maturity certificate at yearly interest rate of 20 percent, the chairman said in a phone interview with satellite Egyptian channel CBC. The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) decided earlier Thursday to float the Egyptian pound, setting it at 13 EGP to the dollar, before allowing the supply-and-demand mechanism to regulate the price at a forex auction. The CBE's decision is an effort to alleviate the dollar shortage and put an end to increased trading on the black market. The CBE also raised key interest rates by 300 basis points to attract more deposits. The overnight deposit rate, the overnight lending rate and the rate of the CBE's main operation have been raised to 15.75 percent, 15.25 percent and 15.25 percent respectively.
