Banque Misr (BM) and the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) raised Tuesday the yield on their three-year fixed-rate deposits. Both banks also launched new products with higher return rates.
This is the latest move in a wave of yield hikes on savings certificates that has been building for weeks across several banks, as lenders try to absorb liquidity from the market and curb inflationary pressures.
Two analysts told Al Manassa this strategy is a less costly alternative to raising benchmark interest rates.
BM announced that it raised the annual yield on the three-year fixed-rate “Al-Qemma” certificate to 17.75%, paid monthly, instead of 17.25%. It also introduced a new option with quarterly payouts at an annual return of 17.85%. NBE made similar rate adjustments.
The two banks’ move follows a similar pattern across Egypt’s banking sector in recent weeks. By early May, six banks—NBE, BM, Commercial International Bank (CIB), Crédit Agricole Egypt, Banque du Caire, and MIDBANK—had raised interest rates on three-year fixed-rate savings certificates, pushing yields to their highest levels in about a year.
The trend is driven mainly by a Central Bank of Egypt policy aimed at curbing inflation by drawing liquidity out of the market, without any added strain on the state budget from raising benchmark interest rates, both analysts explained to Al Manassa.
According to official data, monthly inflation rose in May to 1.4%, up from 1.2% in April, while the annual inflation rate eased to 13%, down from 13.4% the month before. Despite this easing, inflation remains higher than it was at the start of the year, when it stood at 10.1%.
Walaa Ahmed, head of research at Prime Holding, a financial services firm, said raising the yield on savings certificates is an effective tool for draining liquidity from the markets and thereby easing inflationary pressures.
Ahmed added that raising interest rates remains a costlier option for the state, given the already heavy burden of public debt; since a rate hike would also raise the government’s own borrowing costs. This is pushing policymakers to look for alternative tools, such as encouraging savings through high-yield bank certificates.
Although Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly has previously pledged to bring external debt down to historic lows, the latest figures from the World Bank show it actually rose to $163.7 billion as of the end of last September. Egypt’s budget for the 2026–27 fiscal year, meanwhile, forecasts debt interest payments of roughly 2.4 trillion Egyptian pounds (around $48 billion).
Ahmed said the Central Bank has other tools to curb inflation, including raising reserve requirements, that is the share of deposits banks must hold with it. However, she told Al Manassa she does not expect the bank to use this option soon, especially after having already cut the cash reserve ratio from 18% to 16% this past February.
Economist Mostafa Shafie shares this view, saying the Central Bank is currently trying to keep inflation stable using tools that cost less than raising interest rates.
He said expanding high-yield certificates serves two purposes at once: it draws liquidity out of the market, easing price pressures, while also giving citizens an attractive way to save at a time when inflation remains relatively high.
