©Reuters.
Investing.com – An hour before the central bank meeting, several Egyptian banks agreed to raise their commission rate on dollar cash withdrawals outside of Egypt.
This comes just hours after the decision to reduce withdrawals from foreign exchange counters outside Egypt, where several banks announced changes to foreign currency cash withdrawal limits on all cards.
Resolution details
Banque Misr and Al-Ahly Bank have increased the commission rate on dollar cash withdrawals and purchases outside Egypt to 10% instead of 3%.
According to the data, the fee is deducted from the total value of cash withdrawals and purchases outside Egypt using direct debit cards (linked to the customer’s account) and credit cards known as credit cards (purchases).
The purpose of the decision
The measure aims to tighten restrictions on the use of foreign currency outside Egypt, at a time when banks are having difficulty obtaining dollars.
Banks allow their customers to use their Egyptian pound denominated bank cards of various types outside of Egypt for purchases or cash withdrawals in the currency of the customer’s country of location through a global Swift system that allows you to exchange any card currency with the currency in which the customer receives a commission discount in exchange to enable the service.
The increase in fees is due to some customers’ misuse of withdrawing foreign currency cash outside Egypt and reselling it on the black market. Some customers also work to make purchases outside Egypt with the aim of trading in clothes and not for personal use.
Analyst forecasts
Market experts had expected Egypt’s central bank to lift its overnight deposit interest rate by 200 basis points today, Thursday, as part of its efforts to curb rising inflation after the sharp decline in the value of the local currency .
The average forecast was that the Central Bank of Egypt would raise deposit interest rates to 15.25% and loan interest rates to 16.25% at the regular meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee, and the Central Bank would raise interest rates by 200 basis points in a surprise meeting held on October 27. Local currency is 14.5%.
Egypt’s headline inflation rate jumped to a five-year high of 18.7% in November, up from 16.2% in October, and the central bank said after its October meeting that prices would continue to exceed the inflation target range of 5-9% during the fourth quarter.
