Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) Tarek Amer said that the decision taken by the CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to raise the interest on the pound by 2% on Sunday was for the benefit of everyone. The MPC had decided on Sunday to raise the deposit rate, overnight lending rate, and the rate of the CBE’s main operation by 200 basis points to 16.75%, 17.75%, and 17.25%, respectively. This decision was faced by opposition from the business community and a number of local and foreign financial analysts. He noted that the CIB has leading experience financing these projects, inviting banks to benefit from it. Head of the Egyptian Microfinance Federation (EMF), Mona Zulficar, said that the size of funding granted to microfinancing companies reached EGP 6.7bn by the end of 2016, which benefited 2 million citizens.

Source: Daily News Egypt May 23, 2017 14:15 UTC