Cairo - Mubasher: The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) will discuss interest rates in its Monetary Policy Committee meeting today, Thursday, amid expectations that interest rates will be kept unchanged in the last meeting of 2024.

Macroeconomic analysts expect the Central Bank of Egypt to fix interest rates to maintain the attractiveness of government debt instruments.

Last month, the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Egypt kept overnight deposit and lending rates unchanged at 27.25% and 28.25% for the fifth consecutive time after raising the interest rate by 600 basis points in March, bringing the total interest rate hikes to 1,900 basis points since the committee began its monetary tightening policy in 2022.

Egypt's annual inflation rate slowed to 25.5% year-on-year in November compared to 26.5% year-on-year in October, according to data released by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, while prices rose by 0.5% month-on-month in November compared to a 1.1% month-on-month increase in October.

Globally, the US Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 25 basis points to 4.25-4.50% on December 18, bringing the total cut to 100 basis points, after raising interest rates by 525 basis points since the start of the monetary tightening policy in 2022.