The Clap
Egypt’s two biggest state-owned banks, National Bank of Egypt & Banque Misr, have issued one-year certificates of deposit with the option of either 25% interest paid out at the end of the term or 22.5% interest paid out monthly.
What
The move comes as Egypt grapples with soaring inflation & high interest rates to combat soaring inflation.
The announcement immediately sent Egyptian Stock Exchange indexes into a tailspin, before making a quick u-turn when the EGP started sliding against the US dollar around noon time.
So what
The IMF is keeping a close eye on Egypt’s reforms, with one of them expected to be a flexible exchange rate after the use of letters of credit is phased out, &, well, that happened last Thursday.
Now what
A similar move took place when the same two banks issued 18% CoDs when the EGP was devalued in March 2022.
