Egyptian central bank Governor Tarek Amer resigned on Wednesday in a shock development, a day ahead of a keenly awaited monetary policy committee meeting, where a further tightening of interest rate is widely expected.

No successor has been named yet by the government and it was unclear if the meeting would go ahead as planned.

Jason Tuvey of the the London-based consultancy Capital Economics said the resignation points to a growing tension within policymaking circles on the best way to address the country’s external imbalances.

"We think the next governor will ultimately need to let the pound fall further – our forecast is for the currency to fall to 25/$ by end-2024 (from 19.1/$ now) – and hike interest rates."

Egypt's government bonds suffered a sell-off on the international debt markets on Wednesday after Amer unexpectedly resigned. The falls were between 0.6 and 1.7 cents on the dollar, with many of the country's longer-dated bonds seeing the larger moves, Reuters reported.

The Egyptian pound was last trading 0.2% lower at 19.8/$, according to data provider Refinitiv. 

(Writing by Brinda Darasha brinda.darasha@lseg.com; editing by Seban Scaria)