The study aims to determine the impact of interest rate increases by the Central Bank on the financial performance of public joint-stock companies, using the descriptive-analytical method. The study employed the Panel Data approach and conducted the Fisher-ADF test. The study variables include the interest rate set by the Central Bank as an independent variable, profitability (net income to net sales ratio), and debt as dependent variables. The study population consists of all the public shareholding companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange, and the number of public shareholding companies that are committed to the law and the disclosure instructions in terms of providing the Securities Commission with reports of the results of their initial work for the year 2022–2023, reached 90 companies. The study showed several results, including the presence of a significant impact of the central bank’s policies on the level of interest rates in the economy, and thus in turn affects the cost of borrowing for public shareholding companies that have outstanding debts. Which in turn leads to an increase, and it found that higher interest rates, cause an immediate increase in interest payments for companies with variable interest debt. This leads to higher debt servicing costs (Al-Dhahrawi in Zarqa J Res Stud HumIties 20(3):2020, 2020 [1]). It also found that high interest rates lead to lower profitability as a result of the higher cost of borrowing, which affects the ability of companies to meet their debt obligations. The study suggested that before making any decision to raise interest rates, the central bank should thoroughly evaluate the state of the economy as a whole and the rate of inflation. It might be necessary to increase interest rates to manage inflation if it is high. The central bank was advised to closely watch the effects of any interest rate adjustments on public shareholding corporations because if inflation is low, boosting interest rates might not be necessary and could hurt the economy. This includes keeping an eye on changes to its debt and profitability. If an increase in interest rates causes these companies financial distress, the central bank should consider adjusting its policies and providing guidance and support to them.