Egypt’s central bank kept its benchmark overnight deposit and lending rates steady, warning that although economic growth was feeble, there was a risk that inflation might accelerate.

The bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) left its lending rate unchanged at 10.25 per cent and the deposit rate at 9.25 per cent after its regular meeting, it said on its website.

Gross domestic product grew by only 0.3 per cent in the final quarter of 2011 after similarly weak second and third quarters and a 4.3 per cent contraction in the first, the MPC said.

“The re-emergence of local supply bottlenecks and distortions in the distribution channels, as well as the probability of a rebound in international food prices pose upside risks to the inflation outlook,” the MPC said.

Urban consumer price inflation, the most closely watched indicator of prices, eased slightly to nine per cent year-on-year in March from 9.2 per cent in February.

Core annual inflation, which strips out subsidised goods and volatile items including fruit and vegetables, quickened to 8.68 per cent in the year to March from 7.3 per cent in February.

All six economists in a Media survey had forecast the meeting would hold overnight rates unchanged.

The bank also left the discount rate unchanged at 9.5 per cent and the seven-day repurchase agreement (repo) rate at 9.75 per cent.

Some analysts believe the economy contracted last year for the first time since the 1960s amid the turmoil of the country’s popular uprising.

Growth is forecast at around three per cent for 2012, less than the average five percent a year recorded over the last decade.

The government has not yet released growth figures for the first quarter of 2012 or inflation figures for April.