All but one of the 16 economists surveyed expected the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee to keep the deposit rate at 19% and the lending rate at 20%.
In a recent report, the agency said the Egyptian pound has weakened by around 10% against the US dollar since late February, following the exit of more than $10 billion in foreign investments, without intervention from the Central Bank of Egypt to support the currency.
In a previous survey conducted in January, before the conflict began, economists had projected growth of 4.9%, noting at the time that reforms implemented under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) program two years earlier were delivering results faster than anticipated.
The median forecast was calculated based on the estimates of 16 analysts surveyed by Reuters on April 6 and 7.
The move is part of broader measures to strengthen fiscal stability and achieve a primary surplus of 5% of GDP by the 2026/2027 fiscal year.
