After raising the interest rate in America.. What did the Gulf countries decide?
After the American decision to raise interest rates, the Gulf countries do the same.
The reactions of Gulf central banks varied after the US Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates by 0.25% yesterday, Wednesday.
The Federal Reserve (the US central bank) announced an increase in interest rates by 0.25%, to a level between 4.5% and 4.75%.
Qatar Central Bank
Following the decision of the US Federal Reserve, the Qatar Central Bank announced that interest rates would be fixed unchanged at 5% for deposits, 5.5% for lending, and 5.25% for repurchase, so that current interest rates are at appropriate levels to support economic growth.
Central Bank of Bahrain
As for the Central Bank of Bahrain, it decided to increase the interest rate by the same rate as the US Central Bank, by 0.25%, to reach 5%.
UAE Central Bank
The UAE Central Bank also raised the main interest rate by 25 basis points to 4.65%.
Saudi Central Bank
The Saudi Central Bank raised the rate of the “repo” repurchase agreement by 25 basis points to 5.25%, and raised the rate of the reverse repo agreement “reverse repo” by 25 basis points to 4.75%.
Combat inflation
The US Federal Reserve raised interest rates 7 times over the past year, making the increase yesterday the eighth in a row, in order to combat inflation, which hit record levels in decades last year.
The inflation rate in America slowed down last December to 6.5%, compared to 7.1% last November.