Egypt: economy, interest rate and stock market

19.00%   set by Central Bank of Egypt. Last change: −1.00 pt on 12 Feb 2026. As of 19 Oct 2026 (checked by hand against the bank's decisions).

Overnight deposit rate (lending 20%, main operation 19.5%). Held at the 24 September 2026 meeting, the fifth hold of the year.

All countries: central bank interest rates. Rates move stocks through borrowing costs and the currency: rising rates usually weigh on rate-sensitive stocks and help banks, falling rates the opposite.

Mixed   2 of 5 price checks on EGX 30 (Egypt) are positive, as of 18 Oct 2026.

4 or 5 positive = Risk-on, 2 or 3 = Mixed, 0 or 1 = Risk-off. Each check uses only prices up to that day, so the same rule can be run on history (below). It describes how investors are behaving in this market, not what happens next.

Context (not part of the score)

• Global risk gauge (Market Compass): Risk-on, 1 of 7 warning signals on.
• Breadth: 52% of Egypt's stocks are above their own 200-day average.
• Oil is up 29% in three months. Egypt imports far more fuel than it exports, so this raises its import bill and tends to press on its currency and on fuel-heavy industries.

How the rule would have done on the index, 2000-10-22 to 2026-10-18 (25.2 years)

The position is decided at one day's close and applied to the next day's return, so the rule never uses the future. Time out of the market earns nothing here. Limits: index price only (no dividends, no interest on cash), no trading costs or taxes, one market and one period, and a rule that did well or badly in the past can do the opposite next time. Hypothetical results, not a promise and not advice.

Mixed setting: the screen looks for the best momentum per unit of volatility among stocks trading above their 200-day average. Chosen from the 267 most traded stocks in Egypt, using prices up to 18 Oct 2026.

These are candidates to research, not recommendations. The screen reads prices only: it knows nothing about the companies' earnings, debt or valuation, and a stock can fit the setting and still fall. Momentum screens tend to pick volatile stocks, so check the Volatility column. We cannot yet test this screen fairly on the past, because our price history only contains companies that are listed today, which flatters any screen. So instead of showing a backtest we record each day's picks and will judge the rule on what happens after the fact. Educational only, not financial advice.

Share of merchandise exports and imports by product group. ■ exports   ■ imports.

High-technology products are 3.8% of manufactured exports (2024).

What the trade mix suggests to watch

• Fuels are 21.4% of Egypt's merchandise imports against 9.8% of its exports. A rise in oil and gas prices raises its import bill and tends to press on its currency and on fuel-heavy industries; a fall does the reverse.
• Food is 21.6% of merchandise exports: crop and food prices, and the weather behind them, matter for export income.
• Food is 19.1% of merchandise imports, so global food prices feed into domestic inflation.
• Exports plus imports equal 51% of GDP, so the economy is moderately open to trade.
• The current account was a deficit of 3.8% of GDP (2025): the country spends more abroad than it earns and relies on foreign capital to fill the gap.

These describe the structure of trade, using the figures above. They are not forecasts and not investment advice. Latest available year differs by group (usually 2024 or 2025).