The central banks of five Gulf countries, namely Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait, decided to raise interest rates by about 25 basis points.

According to Arabiya Net, the decision came after the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates by the same amount earlier yesterday.

The Central Bank of Oman is widely expected to raise interest rates as well.

The six Arab members of the Gulf Cooperation Council have traditionally followed the US Central Bank's lead on interest rates because their currencies are pegged to the dollar, with the exception of Kuwait, which pegs its currency to a basket Currencies, including the dollar, surprised the markets by raising interest rates.

The Saudi central bank said late on Wednesday that it had raised key interest rates in a move aimed at maintaining monetary stability and supporting the stability of the financial sector.

The central bank indicated that it raised the main repo rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 1.25% and the reverse repo rate by the same amount to 0.75%.

The Central Bank of the Emirates decided, on Wednesday, to raise the base rate on the overnight deposit facilities by 25 basis points, and said that it decided to maintain the rate of borrowing short-term liquidity from it for the various existing credit facilities. at 50 points.

As the Central Bank of Bahrain announced, the decision to raise the basic interest rate on one-week deposits by 25 basis points, from 1.00% to 1.25%.

The overnight deposit rate has also been raised from 0.75% to 1.00%, and the four-week deposit rate has been raised from 1.50% to 1.75%. This is in addition to raising the interest rate imposed by the Central Bank on retail banks in return for lending facilities from 2.25% to 2.50%.

The Qatar Central Bank decided today, Thursday, to raise the repurchase rate by 25 basis points to 1.25%, and the bank also decided to keep the deposit interest rate at its current level of 1% and the rate of Lending interest at its current level is 2.50%.