#UAE central bank raises benchmark interest rate in step with Fed | Reuters

UAE central bank raises benchmark interest rate in step with Fed | Reuters

The United Arab Emirates central bank raised its key overnight interest rate by 5 basis points on Thursday, in step with a similar move by the U.S. Federal Reserve a day earlier.

The UAE's base rate for overnight deposits is anchored to the Fed's Interest on Excess Reserves (IOER), which the U.S. central bank raised by 5 basis points to 0.15% at the end of a two-day policy meeting on Wednesday.

The UAE central bank said in a statement it had also raised its base rate to 0.15%.

"This decision was taken following the US Federal Reserve Board’s yesterday’s announcement to increase the Interest on Excess Reserves (IOER) by 5 basis points," it said.

The central bank also decided to maintain the rate applicable to borrowing short-term liquidity through all of the central bank's standing credit facilities at 50 basis points above the base rate, it said in the statement.