The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has refused to cut interest rates on deposits and credits, keeping them at 11.5% per year. In its meeting on Thursday, the bank's monetary policy committee also decided to keep interest rates on deposits and loans at 11.5% and 13.5% respectively. Investors and experts were expecting the Bank to cut interest rates, after the decrease in inflation rates, in the hope of reducing the interests on investors' loans in different market sectors. Meanwhile, bankers said the Bank's decision is fair and that the Bank had not responded to the government's pressures, as inflation is still above 20%. The monetary policy committee said in a statement that in spite of falling food prices on local markets, the annual inflation rate is still high (20.3% in November compared to 20.2% last October), pushed by an increase in the monthly rate of inflation of non-food commodities.