There is a strong tendency inside banks operating in the Egyptian market to keep their interest rates unchanged, despite the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) decision to raise its basic interest rates by 2% on Sunday. They added that the banks will study this decision’s impact and whether they will apply a further increase in interest rates. A banking expert said that private banks are anticipating the effect of raising the CBE’s interest rates on the return of treasury bills before they move to raise their interest rates on savings portfolios. The government banks’ decisions whether to raise or lower interest rates will determine the private banks’ decisions on their interest rates, being the market’s “leaders” with the largest share, according to the source. Another hike was experienced in the return rates on some loans linked to the CBE’s lending rate, currently up to 17.75%.

Source: Daily News Egypt May 22, 2017 16:07 UTC