CAIRO - Egypt's central bank will keep its overnight interest rates on hold when its monetary policy committee meets on Thursday following two months of accelerating inflation, a poll of analysts predicted on Monday.

The bank has left rates steady since March, when it hiked them by a full six percentage points as part of a $8 billion financial support package it signed with the International Monetary Fund. That hike followed a two percentage point increase in January.

The unanimous forecast in a poll of 16 analysts was for the Central Bank of Egypt to leave the deposit rate steady at 27.25% and lending rate at 28.25%.

Egypt's headline inflation had been trending downwards from a peak of 38.0% in September 2023, but unexpectedly rose in both August and September.

"The uptick in inflation over the past two months will add to reasons for the CBE to keep rates unchanged this month, said James Swanston, Capital Economics. "We don't think the first rate cut will come until Q1 2025, when inflation slows more sharply."

Annual inflation, which was 25.7% in July, crept up to 26.2% in August and 26.4% in September.

July was the first month with a positive real interest rate since January 2022.

Egypt's currency plunged as part of the country's agreement with the IMF in March, having been fixed at 30.85 to the dollar for a year. On Monday it was trading at 48.55 per dollar.

(Reporting by Patrick Werr, Editing by Christina Fincher)