The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) announced that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has decided to cut interest rates by 150 basis points, marking the first cut in six months or since February, Invest-Gate Reports.

The overnight deposit, overnight lending, and main operation rates declined to 14.25%, 15.25%, and 14.75%, respectively, according to CBE’s official statement on August 22. The discount rate was also decreased by 150 basis points to 14.75%, it added.

CBE showed that annual headline inflation fell to recorded 8.7% in July, while core inflation went down to reach 5.9%, recording the lowest rates in four years. This comes despite “the recently implemented fiscal consolidation measures that reached cost recovery for most fuel products,” the statement stated.

Real GDP growth continued to increase slightly to record a preliminary estimate of 5.7% in Q2 2019 and 5.6% in FY 2018/19, the highest in eleven years. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate continued to decline to record 7.5% in Q2 2019.

Ibrahim Nawar, a former advisor to the trade minister, told Ahram Online that the new cuts “pave the way to focus more on exports and the processing industry sectors instead of real estate and retailing sectors, helping the real state sector get out of the current recession which it is suffering. All of that would create more job opportunities and increase productive capacity.”