Good morning, wonderful people, and a very happy THURSDAY. Don’t relax just yet — it’s already shaping up to be a very busy news day.

DRIVING THE CONVERSATION here at home this morning: Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly’s announcement that stakes in no less than 20 state-owned companies will be offered to strategic investors, on the EGX, or both within the next year. We should get the names of those companies next Wednesday. Madbouly also announced fresh help from the government for real estate developers and more one-stop golden licenses for industry players.

AND- The unicorn in the room: A whopping USD 200 mn investment from our friends at Abu Dhabi-based Chimera Investments has put homegrown super-app MNT-Halan on its way to unicorn status. More on all those stories below.

WEEKEND WEATHER– It’s staying cold (and wet in some parts): Expect daytime highs of 19°C and nighttime lows of 9°C in the capital, according to our favorite weather app and the Egyptian Meteorological Authority. Our friends in Alexandria would be wise to keep their umbrellas handy, with light to medium rainfall forecast along the North Coast and in several other parts of the country through the start of next week.

IT’S INTEREST RATE DAY-

The Central Bank of Egypt is expected to raise interest rates when it holds its first policy meeting of the year later today. Analysts we polled last week forecast the Monetary Policy Committee to hike rates by 100-200 bps. The median estimate in a Reuters poll is also for a 150-bps hike. The central bank raised interest rates by 800 bps last year to support the EGP and curb inflation in response to the economic crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine and tightening financial conditions globally.

The Fed went with the Slightly Smaller Rate Hike we’d all come to expect: The US Federal Reserve yesterday raised rates by 25 basis points to a target range of 4.5-4.75%, it said in a statement following its two-day meeting. The US central bank had led the markets to expect the relatively smaller hike as it switches to a more moderate pace of monetary tightening in response to signs of cooling inflation and slowing growth. The Fed made four consecutive jumbo 75-bps hikes followed by a 50-bps hike last year, in a bid to temper record high inflation.

What now? The Fed is staying hawkish in tone, vowing “ongoing increases in the target range… in order to attain a stance of monetary policy that is sufficiently restrictive to return inflation to 2% over time.” The jury’s out as to whether that’s just talk or if we can expect another hike at the Fed’s next meeting on March 21-22. Bloomberg Opinion’s Robert Burgess makes a good argument for why he thinks the Fed is now done with tightening, explaining how a “sufficiently restrictive” policy rate may already have been reached.

The ECB is also deciding on rates today: Europe’s central bank is set to hike rates by 50 bps to 2.5% during its meeting today despite a drop in eurozone inflation in January as energy prices eased, Reuters reports. Analysts see the drop in headline inflation doing little to ease the pace of monetary tightening, as a closely watched gauge of underlying inflation that excludes volatile items held steady at 5.2% last month.

ALSO HAPPENING TODAY-

PM Madbouly in Senegal: PM Moustafa Madbouly is in Senegal’s Dakar to participate in the two-day Dakar Financing Summit for African infrastructure development, which kicks off today, according to a cabinet statement. The electricity, housing, and transport ministers and reps from local infrastructure firms are also attending the summit, which will give Egyptian private-sector firms the chance to participate in African infrastructure projects and advertise local projects to foreign investors, said Cabinet Spokesperson Nader Saad.

A second World-Bank backed wheat buy: Traders need to submit their bids directly to state grain buyer GASC by midday for its second international grain tender this month and the second to be financed by the World Bank. GASC is seeking 30-60k tons of wheat for delivery in late February or March, according to its website.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES-

The tougher economy is now starting to be felt by top management at some US firms, after weeks of stories of employee layoffs sweeping tech and other sectors.

• Struggling Intel slashes exec pay: Intel’s CEO is having to take a 25% pay cut as the company struggles amid economic headwinds. The company reported heavy 4Q losses on Friday, triggering a sell-off that wiped USD 8 bn from its market cap. More losses are expected to follow in 1Q 2023, Bloomberg reports.
• More than 10% of senior staff at Fedex will be laid off as part of cost-cutting measures that have already seen the company cut some 12k jobs since June, according to Reuters.

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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.

Want to join the conversation? Drop us a line on events@enterprisemea.com.

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Some key news triggers this month:

• PMI: S&P Global will publish January’s PMI on Sunday, 5 February.
• Foreign reserves: The central bank will release January’s foreign reserves figures next week.
• Inflation: The CBE and Capmas will publish inflation data for January the week after next.

The House of Representatives will reconvene on Sunday, 12 February.

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