Economic experts expect the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to keep interest rates at their current levels to encourage investment and stabilize currency exchange rates.
The CBE’s monetary policies committee is expected to hold a meeting on Thursday to review interest rates.
Mokhtar al-Sherif, an economic expert, and Abdallah Shehata, a professor at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, said interest rates will likely be kept at their current rates to motivate investment and consumption.
Sherif and Shehata, however, expected the rate of inflation to continue to rise as a result of the 15% bonus payment for state workers in the absence of increases in the supply of goods and services.
Hussein Mansour, an official from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said inflation would continue to rise due to a drop in productivity rates.
Mohamed Qassem, a banking expert, said the recent drop in the value of the Egyptian pound has led to an increase in the prices of imports.
The annual inflation rate rose to 12.4 percent in April 2011.
Egypt's central bank kept its key overnight interest rates steady on April 28 in a bid to foster economic growth without reigniting high inflation.
