Cairo - Mubasher: Chairman of Orascom Investment Holding, Naguib Sawiris, expected that the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) would keep interest rates in 2020 unchanged, according to CNBC Arabia.
Sawiris told CNBC Arabia that the investment in Egypt is heading towards positivity in light of the presence of very good opportunities.
During 2019, Egypt has cut interest rates four times with a total of 450 basis points (bps).
On 14 November, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the CBE decided in its meeting to decrease the interest rates by 100 points after reducing the rates by 150 and 100 points in August and September, respectively.
On the other hand, international agencies expected that the CBE will continue to reduce the interest rates, as Capital Economics has announced in a recent report that the overnight deposit rate would decrease by 250 bps to 10% by the end of 2021.
Meanwhile, the CBE seeks to achieve an annual inflation rate of 9% (±3%) on average during the last quarter of 2020.
Noteworthy to mention, on 3 November 2016, the CBE decided to float the local currency exchange rate against the foreign currency to set a price based on supply and demand.
