Policy monitor: Central Bank of Egypt holds at 19.5% with inflation at 14.3%

The Central Bank of Egypt's benchmark policy rate stands at 19.5%, unchanged at its most recent review. This briefing sets out the data behind the stance, drawn from CBAN's Egypt dataset.

Headline consumer price inflation is running at 14.3% year on year in the latest reading tracked by CBAN, down from 14.9% in the prior reading. That puts the real policy rate — the benchmark rate minus headline inflation — at roughly 5.2 percentage points, a restrictive setting by historical standards.

On the currency side, the Egyptian pound trades near 48.2 per US dollar, down 1.2% since the start of the year. Gross official reserves stand at roughly $46.7 billion. Exchange-rate pass-through into consumer prices is one of the strongest inflation channels in most African economies, which is why these two indicators move together in policy deliberations.

The CBE's statutory mandate: Price stability and banking system soundness within a liberalised exchange-rate regime and inflation-targeting framework.

The wider economy is growing at around 4% a year on the estimates CBAN tracks, with nominal output of about $396 billion. Growth, inflation and the exchange rate form the three-way trade-off every Monetary Policy Committee weighs.

The next scheduled monetary policy decision is 20 August 2026. CBAN tracks every African MPC date in the economic calendar, and this briefing is refreshed as new official data is released.