Cairo – Mubasher: The rise of interest rates in Egypt increases pressures on the country’s budget and harm the private sector, chief operating manager at Pharos Holding for Financial Investments Angus Blair told Bloomberg in an interview.

Egypt faces pressures in its budget due to the rise of the interest rate on the Egyptian pound-denominated loans and the rise in interest rates in general, Blair highlighted.

Blair forecasted the Egyptian government to succeed in issuing the planned international bonds.

The private sector in Egypt have been adversely impacted by interest rates, which makes the Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) perform negatively, while the country has a strong growth rate at about 4.5%, he continued.

The financial analyst stressed the importance of promoting the private sector’s investments, in line with the unity of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) and the Ministry of Finance to cut interest rates.

In July, the CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) announced raising interest rates by 2% or 200 basis points for the second time in a row in less than two months.

The hike involved increasing overnight deposit interest rate to 18.75%, and overnight lending to 19.75%.