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CAIRO - Egypt's central bank is expected to leave its overnight interest rates unchanged when its monetary policy committee (MPC) meets on Thursday, after it indicated last month it would hold rates until next year, a poll of analysts predicted on Monday.
The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has kept rates steady since March, when it hiked them by a full six percentage points as part of a $8 billion financial support package Egypt signed with the International Monetary Fund. That hike followed a two percentage point increase in January.
The unanimous forecast in a poll of 12 analysts was for the bank to leave the deposit rate steady at 27.25% and lending rate at 28.25%.
"We expect the CBE to remain on hold until March 2025 (when) a sharp slowing in inflation from February should open the door for rate cuts," said Monica Malik of Abu Dhabi's ADCB.
She said the central bank would want to see the Egyptian pound stabilising before it decides to cut rates.
Egypt's headline inflation dipped in November to 25.5%, its lowest since December 2022, and has been trending downwards from a peak of 38.0% in September 2023.
"The committee views the current monetary policy stance as appropriate until a significant and sustained decline in inflation materialises," the MPC said at its last meeting on Nov. 21.
Egypt's currency weakened to 51.08 to the dollar on Monday after having breached the psychological barrier of 50 on Dec. 5.
(Reporting by Patrick Werr Editing by Tomasz Janowski)