Gulf Nations Brace for Prolonged Period of Elevated Interest Rates Following Fed's Lead

Gulf Nations Brace for Prolonged Period of Elevated Interest Rates Following Fed's Lead

• Economists are predicting that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries will endure an extended period of elevated interest rates, closely mirroring the actions of the United States Federal Reserve.
• Over the past couple of years, Gulf central banks have been gradually raising interest rates in tandem with the Federal Reserve's efforts to combat inflation, which had soared to multi-decade highs. As the currencies of the UAE and other Gulf nations are pegged to the US dollar, they closely follow the Fed's monetary policy decisions.
• The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) recently announced its decision to maintain the Base Rate applicable to the Overnight Deposit Facility (ODF) at 5.40 percent, effective from Thursday, September 21. This move followed the UAE Central Bank's decision to raise rates on July 26 by 25 basis points, increasing it from 5.15 percent to 5.40 percent, in response to the US Federal Reserve Board's announcement of a 25-basis-point increase in the Interest on Reserve Balances (IORB).
• Oxford Economics has indicated that the Federal Reserve temporarily paused its rate-hiking cycle, providing some relief to GCC countries, which had witnessed their interest rates reach the highest levels in over two decades.
• As Gulf nations continue to track the Fed's moves closely, they prepare for a challenging period of managing their economies in the face of global economic fluctuations.

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Published date : 27 Sep 2023 04:40PM