Central banks in most of the GCC countries have increased the interest rates in lockstep with the US Federal Reserve, which raised benchmark overnight.
The central banks of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Bharain and Qatar raised raised their benchmark borrowing rates after the US Federal Reserve increased its key interest rate to tame inflation and restore price stability. The Fed’s policy rate moves due to their currencies being pegged to the US dollar.
This is the tenth-rate increase by the US central bank since it started monetary tightening in March 2022, pushing rates in the US to their highest since 2007.