Egypt Monetary Policy Must Consider Community Impact, Amer says

Central banks do not set monetary policy in a vacuum and must consider the impact of their decisions on the wider community, Egypt’s central bank governor Tarek Amer said Thursday, reflecting on the balancing act he faces as the country presses ahead with an IMF-backed reform program.

“Policy makers have to have a sense of the market. At the end of the day these decisions are very political,” Amer said at the International Monetary Fund’s annual meeting in Bali.
“You can’t be in closed-doors and think raising interest rates is good, but you don’t know how the community is going to take that.’’