Egypt's Central Bank is expected to keep key interest rates, deposit and lending rates unchanged on its upcoming meeting on Monday, bankers told Amwal Al Ghad. The move to keep the rates on hold would be in an attempt to balance inflationary pressures and the need to stimulate an economy suffering from more than three years of stagnation. The CBE's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is set to convene its meeting Monday, September 1st, to look into interest rates. Inflation has slowed since reaching its highest in nearly four years, at 13%, last November. But it grew in July after the government introduced fuel price increases. At their last meeting on July 17, the central bank raised benchmark interest rates by 100 points in an unexpected move seen as an attempt to hold down inflation after the fuel hike. It raised the overnight deposit rate to 9.25% from 8.25% and the overnight lending rate to 10.25% from 9.25%.
