Egypt held its rate at 19%. Banque Misr sells a certificate paying 19.25%.

Egypt’s central bankTermCentral bank×البنك المركزيThe government's bank, which controls the money supply, sets interest rates, and oversees all other banks in the country.Open the term left its deposit rate at 19% on 20 August. It has now sat there for four meetings. The last move was a cut, in February.

You can buy that rate over a counter. Banque Misr’s rate sheet for 1 September lists a three-year certificate called Yomaty paying 19%, the same number the central bank uses, and it starts at a thousand pounds. The same sheet lists another three-year certificate, which it calls Variable CDs with monthly interest, paying 19.25%. That one is priced at the central bank’s rate plus a quarter of a point, and it also starts at a thousand pounds.

Most people didn’t. The central bank surveys the banks and publishes what savers actually got. Money put into a new deposit in June earned 14.8% on average. The average rate on savings certificates of three years or more was 17.2% in the second quarter. InflationTermInflation×التضخّمA general rise in prices over time, so one riyal today buys less than it did a year ago.Open the term in the year to July was 14.9%. None of the interest is taxed. It has been exempt for individuals in Egypt since 2005.

What you give up to get 19%

Three years, at least. Banque Misr’s pound certificates run three, four, five and seven years, and three is the shortest. The bank does take shorter money. A six-month Flex Plus deposit pays 17%, and it starts at fifty thousand pounds. But savings you might need in March cannot earn 19%.

Getting out is slow. For the first six months the certificate is locked, and Banque Misr will not cash it in, in whole or in part. After that you can have the money back, but the bank takes back part of the interest it has already paid you, and the earlier you go the more it takes.

The 19% does not stay, either. Yomaty is priced off the central bank’s rate, so it comes down when the central bank cuts, while the money stays where it is. Four holds in a row are why it still reads 19% today. The same bank sells Al Qimma, three years at a fixed 17.75% paid monthly, which keeps paying 17.75% whatever the committee decides next.

Inflation is two different numbers

Food prices in Egypt rose 8.0% in the year to July. Everything else rose 19.1%. A household whose money goes on rent, transport and school fees is living in the 19.1% number, and against that a 19% certificate gains nothing at all.

The central bank’s survey puts the average savings account at 7.7% in the second quarter. Banque Misr’s own savings account pays 9% on balances between ten and fifty thousand pounds. Leave fifty thousand pounds in one of those for a year instead of buying the certificate and the difference is five thousand pounds.

All of that compares a rate with prices that have already risen. What a certificate bought this week turns out to be worth depends on the next twelve months of inflation, which have not happened yet. The real-return calculator on this site does that sum for any rate against any inflation figure: 14.9% is the headline number, and 19.1% is the one for a household that spends little on food.

Both certificates start at a thousand pounds, and both run three years.