Back to the complete issue
Tuesday, 3 January 2017

What we’re tracking this week

The Emirates NBD Egypt PMI by Markit is due out tomorrow morning by 6:15am or so. The Saudi and UAE PMIs are due out at the same time.

Strong reserves report expected: The central bank is expected to tell us by Thursday how much reserves were in its coffers at the end of 2016, and we speculate it will be a pleasant surprise. Governor Tarek Amer’s CBE is on track to become the rare kind of Egyptian institution that manages to set itself an ambitious, measurable target and succeeds not only in achieving it, but quite possibly overshoot it. Amer had stated repeatedly that he aims to bring the CBE’s reserves to USD 25 bn by the end of December 2016. As of November, the CBE’s net international reserves stood at USD 23.1 bn and, having stopped defending the EGP following the flotation in November. Egypt has since signed a USD 2.7 bn swap agreement with China as well as agreements worth more than EUR 500 mn with the European Union and French Development Agency.

Not going to be included in the reserves report: USD 1 bn in funding approved and disbursed by the World Bank and USD 500 mn from the African Development Bank. An exclusive report by Youm7 in late December quoted Amer as noting that the AfDB and WB funding will be used to finance imports of fuel and LNG and to finance operations and maintenance costs at state-owned power plants.

Important to remember: The CBE will have to make a payment to its Paris Club creditors in January.

Enterprise is a daily publication of Enterprise Ventures LLC, an Egyptian limited liability company (commercial register 83594), and a subsidiary of Inktank Communications. Summaries are intended for guidance only and are provided on an as-is basis; kindly refer to the source article in its original language prior to undertaking any action. Neither Enterprise Ventures nor its staff assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, whether in the form of summaries or analysis. © 2022 Enterprise Ventures LLC.

Enterprise is available without charge thanks to the generous support of HSBC Egypt (tax ID: 204-901-715), the leading corporate and retail lender in Egypt; EFG Hermes (tax ID: 200-178-385), the leading financial services corporation in frontier emerging markets; SODIC (tax ID: 212-168-002), a leading Egyptian real estate developer; SomaBay (tax ID: 204-903-300), our Red Sea holiday partner; Infinity (tax ID: 474-939-359), the ultimate way to power cities, industries, and homes directly from nature right here in Egypt; CIRA (tax ID: 200-069-608), the leading providers of K-12 and higher level education in Egypt; Orascom Construction (tax ID: 229-988-806), the leading construction and engineering company building infrastructure in Egypt and abroad; Moharram & Partners (tax ID: 616-112-459), the leading public policy and government affairs partner; Palm Hills Developments (tax ID: 432-737-014), a leading developer of commercial and residential properties; Mashreq (tax ID: 204-898-862), the MENA region’s leading homegrown personal and digital bank; Industrial Development Group (IDG) (tax ID:266-965-253), the leading builder of industrial parks in Egypt; Hassan Allam Properties (tax ID:  553-096-567), one of Egypt’s most prominent and leading builders; and Saleh, Barsoum & Abdel Aziz (tax ID: 220-002-827), the leading audit, tax and accounting firm in Egypt.