STORY: Egypt's central bank keeps interest rates unchanged
DATELINE: Sept. 22, 2023
LENGTH: 00:00:57
LOCATION: Cairo
CATEGORY: ECONOMY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the Central Bank of Egypt
2. various of an accountant counting banknotes
3. various of the National Bank of Egypt
4. various of Banque Misr

STORYLINE:

The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) decided Thursday to maintain interest rates at current levels.

During its meeting, the CBE's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) kept the overnight deposit rate, overnight lending rate and the rate of the main operation at 19.25 percent, 20.25 percent and 19.75 percent, respectively. The discount rate remained at 19.75 percent.

According to Egypt's Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, the country's year-on-year headline inflation hit a record high of 39.7 percent in August, compared to 38.2 percent in July and 15.3 percent in August 2022.

In early August, the CBE raised the interest rates by 100 basis points, or 1 percent, in a bid to contain high inflation. It was the second interest rate hike in Egypt this year after a 2-percent rise in late March for the same reason.
   
The CBE devalued the Egyptian pound twice last year, and the local currency has lost about half of its value since March 2022.

The Egyptian government is working hard to attract foreign investments and boost the tourism sector which can bring in hard currency to the country beset with economic challenges.

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Cairo.
(XHTV)