Moody's credit rating agency announced today, Tuesday, that it has changed the ratings and assessments for five globally rated Egyptian banks. The agency stated that this includes the long-term deposit rating of Caa1 for the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), Banque Misr (BM), Banque du Caire, and the Commercial International Bank (CIB), and the long-term deposit rating of B3 for the Alexandria Bank. As part of the same rating action, the outlook for the long-term deposit ratings for these banks has been changed from negative to positive.
According to the agency, these rating actions follow its decision to affirm Egypt's Caa1 rating and change its outlook to positive from negative. The change to a positive outlook reflects the very significant contribution of foreign direct investment from the United Arab Emirates, as well as a notable shift in economic policy with the substantial devaluation of the currency and increased interest rates, which, if maintained, will help Egypt sustain its economic size.
Moody's indicated that the negative risks that led to its previous negative outlook in January have "significantly reduced," as the "very substantial" foreign direct investment contribution from the UAE is helping to "greatly bolster the economy's foreign exchange reserves to cover the external financing gap that Moody's estimates until the fiscal year 2026, which ends in June 2026," according to the report.
