Egypt's two biggest banks, the state-owned National Bank of Egypt and Banque Misr have received around 100 billion Egyptian pounds (around $6.3 billion) from new certificates of deposit it started offering on Nov. 3. Following the central bank's decision to float the Egyptian pound and raise key interest rates, the two banks announced offering 18-month certificates of deposit at 20 percent and three-year certificates of deposit at 16 percent. On November 3rd, Egypt's central bank decided to freely float the pound and raise key interest rates 300 basis points as part of a set of reforms aimed at alleviating a dollar shortage and stabilising the country's flagging economy. The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said its decision to liberalise the exchange rate is part of a government reform programme that aims at "trimming the budget deficit and cutting public debt." The overnight deposit rate, the overnight lending rate and the rate of the CBE's main operation have been raised to 14.75 percent, 15.75 percent and 15.25 percent respectively.
