Cairo – Mubasher: London-based Capital Economics expected that the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) will maintain the qualitative easing policy in his next meeting in August.

The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is expected to reduce interest rates by 100 basis points (bps), Capital Economics said, according to a report released on Thursday.

The bank will also cut another 100 bp by year-end, decreasing the interest rate to 13.75%, to reach 10.75% by the end of 2020, following another reduction, economic research consultancy’s report said.

The CBE’s MPC is set to hold a meeting on 22 August to discuss interest rates.

In July 2019, the MPC decided in its meeting to keep the current interest rates unchanged.

Overnight deposit rate and the overnight lending rate were maintained unchanged at 15.75%, and 16.75%, respectively, while the rate of the main operation and the discount rate were both also kept at 16.25%.