Good morning, wonderful people, and happy THURSDAY-equivalent. We hope our Egypt-based readers get some well-earned rest on the three-day weekend after what has somehow felt like a very long week.

We’re out of office, too: EnterpriseAM and EnterprisePM will not be publishing tomorrow as we observe Police Day / Revolution Day. We’ll be back in your inbox at our customary time on Sunday, 29 January.

BUT FIRST- We have another packed issue to see you into the holiday, with tons of investment news, more recalibration of business plans post the float of the EGP, and the likely disappearance of high-yield CDs next week. All of this and more starting in this morning’s news well, below.

More progress on clearing the import backlog at ports: Imports worth more than USD 1.5 bn were cleared from our ports between 18-23 January, cabinet spokesperson Nader Saad said in a cabinet statement yesterday. Saad didn’t disclose the value of goods still to be released, though Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly on 18 January put the figure at USD 5.3 bn, of which he said more than half (USD 3 bn) is pending documents from importers rather than hard currency to be released. Some USD 15.4 bn of goods have now been cleared in total since 1 December, per our math.

HAPPENING TODAY-

El Sisi in India: It’s the second day of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s three-day visit to India at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. El Sisi will be honored as “chief guest” at celebrations to mark the country’s 74th Republic Day tomorrow.

The national handball team faces hosts Sweden in the quarter finals of the International Handball Federation’s (IHF) Men’s World Championship, tonight at 9:30pm CLT in Stockholm.

Fun fact: We’ve never beaten the Swedish side in the World Championships, having clocked up six losses and one draw. The Pharaohs almost managed to defeat the Swedes on home soil last year, missing out on victory by just a couple points, according to the IHF.

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WATCH THIS SPACE- Are we loving Airbnb? Real estate owners could convert their properties in tourist hotspots and new cities into tourist accommodation, Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly suggested in a meeting yesterday, according to a cabinet statement. Owners should make “best use” of their real estate assets and help maximize accommodation capacity by renting out their properties to tourists, Madbouly said, without giving details.

REMEMBER- The government is pushing the tourism sector to up accommodation capacity and improve services as part of plans to attract as many as 30 mn tourists by 2028. Look out for a new tourism strategy later this quarter for details on how those goals will be achieved.

DATA POINT: Our oil trade balance surplus came in at more than USD 3 bn in 2022, Oil Minister Tarek El Molla told Al Arabiya TV in an interview (watch, runtime: 1:58). He said the figure was preliminary and unaudited. The country is targeting petroleum exports of more than USD 18 bn this year, El Molla added.

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THE BIG STORY ABROAD: The international press is caught up in European geopolitics this morning, as the media continues to try and figure out who is and isn’t sending tanks to Ukraine, while Finland is wondering if it can still get into NATO if it ditches Sweden at the door.

We don’t know where to look in the international business press as several stories break at once this morning:

• Mr. Murdoch has scrapped his controversial plan to reunite media giants News Corp and Fox Corp in a merger after shareholder pushback. (Reuters | FT)
• US prosecutors are gunning for Google over antitrust issues: The US Department of Justice is suing the tech behemoth in a bid to break what prosecutors characterized as a digital advertising monopoly, ramping up the pressure on Google over antitrust issues in several countries. (WSJ | Reuters | FT)
• More trouble in tech: Microsoft sales hit a six-year low in 4Q 2022, while net income fell 12% y-o-y to USD 16.4 bn. The company already said it is cutting some 10k jobs on the back of the slowdown. (WSJ)

AND- We had a feeling the Davos spirit wouldn’t last. After a surprise wave of optimism over the global economy out of the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, Bloomberg is back to burst the bubble with renewed talk of the threat of stagflation. The positive developments that helped buoy the mood in Davos — including China’s reopening and energy prices kept at bay by a warmer winter — are making stagflation “look increasingly likely,” the business newswire says. “That would be the worst-case outcome for all financial assets,” warns Nicolai Tangen, CEO of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund.

SOUND SMART- Stagflation = stagnating growth + high inflation, AKA economists’ worst nightmare. The global economy had it bad in the 1970s, and we’ve been hearing warnings that it could come back for the best part of a year. Read more in our explainer.

THE BIG SCREEN- Everything Everywhere All At Once tops Oscar noms: The sci-fi adventure hit starring Michelle Yeoh led the pack with 11 Academy Award nominations, including best picture. Fellow best picture contenders All Quiet on the Western Front and The Banshees of Inisherin followed up with nine nominations each. See the full list of nominees in every category here.

Not getting an Oscar: The snubs are more fun than the noms, in our view. Among those missing out this year are James Cameron, who will not be getting a best director award for his Avatar sequel, and Tom Cruise, whose Top Gun comeback did not gain him a best actor nomination (though both films are in the running for best picture.)

MORNING MUST WATCH- Do you love Ted Lasso? Watch this Apple advert (runtime 5:53), starring Nick Mohammed (Nate on the show). Don’t know what Ted Lasso is, but care about privacy when you’re using your phone? Watch it anyway. Then head over to Apple TV+ to catch the first season of the brilliant, light-hearted fish-out-of-water show about a Premier League football team.

COME TO OUR NEXT ENTERPRISE FORUM-

We’re excited to unveil our next C-level event: The Enterprise FDI + Exports Forum, where we will take a deep dive into two of the most critical topics affecting our community.

Exports and foreign direct investment (FDI) have never been more important to our economy — or our businesses — than in the wake of the float of the EGP. We think we have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to build an export-led economy that makes us a magnet for FDI and all the benefits that will come with it for our nation.

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CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

EBRD + EU + GCF green finance event next week: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the EU, the Green Economic Financing Facility, and the Green Climate Fund will hold a green finance event on Tuesday, 31 January at the Nile Ritz Carlton Hotel.

OPEC+ is meeting remotely next Wednesday, 1 February and delegates are expecting the committee to keep oil output unchanged as global demand picks up, Bloomberg reports. The committee will continue to look tino the impact of Western sanctions on Russian crude and the relaxation of China’s covid restrictions on the global market, unnamed delegates told the business information service. This would mark the second consecutive meeting during which OPEC opted out of changing oil output, following a surprise 2 mn barrels-per-day cut in October. “OPEC+ looks increasingly likely to keep output levels unchanged even after the scheduled meeting … Prices have firmed, supply remains tight, and significant levels of uncertainty prevail for both supply and demand,” Eurasia Group Analyst Raad Alkadiri said.

The US Federal Reserve also meets next week, gathering on 31 January and 1 February to set interest rates. There’s growing speculation the US central bank will go for what the gang at Zooba would call a Slightly Smaller interest rate hike.

The Senate is set to reconvene on Sunday, 5 February, having yesterday completed two days of plenary sessions that saw members discuss tourism promotion and education reform.

Check out our full calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.

*** It’s Hardhat day — your weekly briefing of all things infrastructure in Egypt: Enterprise’s industry vertical focuses each Wednesday on infrastructure, covering everything from energy, water, transportation, and urban development, as well as social infrastructure such as health and education.

In today’s issue: Mooted delays to national projects could deepen woes in the construction industry.