HC Securities and Investment is expecting the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to keep interest rates unchanged during its upcoming Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting on February 1st, according to an emailed press release.

The agency ascribed this to the lack of foreign exchange (FX) rate movement.

“If an EGP devaluation takes place, we do not rule out a policy rate hike,” Heba Mounir, Economist and Financials Analyst at HC, said.

“We anticipate an adjustment in the FX rate after concluding the IMF's delayed first and second reviews and reaching an agreement with the IMF on doubling,” Mounir added.

The agency also anticipates Egypt’s headline inflation to see a 6.7% monthly hike and a 36.3% annual increase in January due to higher prices of several services in 2024 as well as the increase in money supply resulting from the maturity of high-yielding certificates of deposits (CDs) in January, Mounir said.

In December 2023, the CBE’s MPC decided to maintain key interest rates.

 

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