National Bank of Egypt denies issuance of new high return saving certificates

In a press statement on Thursday evening, Yehia Aboul Fotouh the Vice President of the NBE warned against these false rumors, indicating that such unprofessional practices negatively affect the national economy.

Aboul Fotouh statement came hours after the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) raised key interest rates by two percent (200 bps) for the first time in 2023 in an effort to control soaring inflation.

In March 2022, the NBE and Banque Misr issued one-year certificates of deposit (CDs) with an annual yield of 18%.

According to official statements, the proceeds of the CDs reached $750 billion in just 70 days and came to maturity in March.

This move came as a result of the depreciation of the Egyptian pound against the US dollar, trading at EGP 18.5 for $1 on 21 March 2022, down from EGP 15.77 a day earlier.

In January of the same year, both banks also issued new one-year maturity saving certificates with a 25% yield after another depreciation of the Egyptian pound, which was trading at over EGP 30 for $1, down from 24.7 at the beginning of the year.

These CDs collected EGP 460 billion in less than a month.