There was enough business and economics on the airwaves last night to keep us from falling asleep. Lamees El Hadidi spoke to EFG Hermes’ Mohamed Abou Basha about the month-on-month slowdown in inflation, which he said was the result of the market adjusting to the effects of recent economic reform measures (watch, runtime: 3:40). (More on that front on Speed Round)
Lamees also spoke to Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla about the start of operations at BP’s West Nile Delta concessions, which launched eight months ahead of schedule and are expected to save Egypt around USD 1 bn in in annual spending (watch, runtime: 9:16).

Over on Masaa DMC, GAFI overlord Mohamed Khodeir spoke to host Osama Kamal about the new Investment Act (watch, runtime: 3:41).

On Yahduth fi Misr, Sherif Amer spoke to Investment and International Cooperation Minister Sahar Nasr about her most recent trip to DC and the executive regulations of the Investment Act, which she said would be ready in “a matter of weeks.”
Amer also spoke to MPs about the 10% hardship raise for bureaucrats not covered under the Civil Service Act, which the House of Representatives approved today and expects to see issued by 25 May at the latest.

Amr Adib spent the larger part of last night’s Kol Youm loudly recounting all the great things that industry can do for the economy. Adib also played a short clip about 58 newly-equipped and licensed factories in Port Said’s industrial zone that the government handed over to young people to run as part of a national initiative to support SMEs (watch, runtime: 3:36).

Meanwhile on Al Hayah Al Yom, Tamer Amin was on pensions. The head of the General Union of Pensioners, El Badry Farghaly, spoke to the host about the need to raise the take-home envelopes of Egypt’s 5 mn pensioners to help them to cope with inflation. Most receive around EGP 500-1,000 each month, which is not nearly enough, Farghaly said (watch, runtime: 4:50).