Egypt Held Its Deposit Rate at 19.00% for a Fourth Meeting as Inflation Climbed to 14.9%

Egypt's central bank left its overnight deposit rate at 19.00% for a fourth meeting as July inflation rose to 14.9% but registered 0% month on month.

The Central Bank of Egypt's Monetary Policy Committee left all four of its policy rates unchanged on 20 August 2026: the overnight deposit rate at 19.00%, the overnight lending rate at 20.00%, and both the main operation rate and the discount rate at 19.50%. Bloomberg reported it as the fourth consecutive hold. For anyone financing property in Egypt, a 20.00% overnight lending rate is the number that matters — it sets the floor under every bank product priced off it.

The annual number rose; the monthly number did not

Headline inflation reached 14.9% year on year in July, up from 14.3% in June, with core inflation at 14.7% against 14.3%. Both, however, printed 0% month on month.

The committee attributed the annual increase to unfavourable base effects — the comparison month a year earlier was unusually soft — and read the flat monthly figure as evidence that "the impact of earlier price shocks is gradually fading." It expects headline inflation to rise further through the third quarter of 2026, though less sharply than previously forecast, with disinflation beginning in the first quarter of 2027 and the target of 7% plus or minus 2 percentage points reached in the second half of 2027.

That timeline puts roughly a year between now and the first material easing of Egyptian borrowing costs, assuming the path holds. The bank named regional tensions and fiscal consolidation measures as upside risks to it.

Egypt is the cheapest market on our board, and getting cheaper

Glopra's Egypt row, snapshotted 23 July 2026, records a national average of $831 per square metre — the lowest of the 70 markets we track — against a gross rental yield of 7.61%. The next cheapest are South Africa at $906 and Malaysia at $1,050.

The direction is what makes it unusual. Egyptian prices are down 8.22% over twelve months in local-currency terms and down 11.2% in dollars. A market with nominal prices falling by 8.22% while consumer prices rise 14.9% is losing value in real terms at a rate few markets anywhere are matching, and our bubble-risk reading for Egypt sits in the moderate band as a result.

What a 20% lending rate does to a housing market

The arithmetic is unforgiving in both directions. Egyptian savers are being offered 19.00% on deposits against 14.9% inflation, a positive real return of several percentage points. The same policy makes borrowing to buy property expensive enough that mortgage-financed demand largely disappears, which is one reason the price series has turned negative.

That is also the strongest caveat on the yield figure. A 7.61% gross yield in a currency that has moved against the dollar, on an asset whose local price is falling, is not the same proposition as 7.61% in a stable currency. Our own snapshot for Egypt is dated 23 July 2026, slightly older than the August refresh several other markets carry — worth noting before treating the price line as current.

Sources: Egypt Today https://www.egypttoday.com/Article/3/149006/Egypt%E2%80%99s-central-bank-holds-interest-rates-steady-as-inflation-outlook; Bloomberg https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-20/egypt-holds-rates-a-fourth-time-with-no-end-to-iran-war-in-sight

Market data: Egypt