A statement by the Central Bank of Egypt revealed details of the Monetary Policy Committee’s decision to raise the interest rate today, Thursday, by 200 points.
And the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Egypt decided, in its meeting on Thursday, March 30, 2023, to raise the rates of the one-night deposit and lending return and the price of the main operation of the Central Bank by 200 basis points, to reach 18.25%, 19.25%, and 18.75%, respectively, and the credit rate was also raised. And the discount is 200 basis points, reaching 18.75%.
On the global level, the monetary policy committee of the Central Bank of Egypt added, in a statement, that global commodity price expectations declined compared to the expectations presented to the Monetary Policy Committee at its previous meeting. Despite this, the state of uncertainty related to the expectations of those prices persisted, according to Egyptian media.
The statement continued, the most important of which are the prospects for imbalances in global supply chains and the expectations of global economic activity in light of the closure policy accompanying the Corona pandemic in China, in addition to the recent developments in the financial sector in advanced economies. These developments were reflected in significant fluctuations in the financial conditions of the US economy and the European Union, which confirms the high levels of uncertainty related to the global economy.
At the local level, the growth rate of real economic activity slowed slightly to record 3.9% during the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to a growth rate of 4.4% during the third quarter of 2022. Thus, the first half of the fiscal year 2022/2023 recorded a growth rate of 4.2%. .
Detailed data for the third quarter of 2022 indicate that growth in the improvement of economic activity of the private sector, especially the tourism sectors, was driven by real GDP, agriculture, and wholesale and retail trade.
In addition, most of the preliminary indicators continued to record positive growth rates during the first quarter of 2023. It is expected that the GDP growth rate will follow a moderate pace during the fiscal year 2022/2023 compared to the previous fiscal year, to rise again after that.
With regard to the labor market, the unemployment rate recorded 7.2% during the fourth quarter of 2022, compared to a rate of 7.4% during the third quarter of 2022.
