EnterprisePM — Annual urban inflation accelerated last month thanks to rising food and transportation costs

Are we the only ones who feel as if the whole country woke up this week and tried to cram about two months’ worth of business into the past five or so workdays? Not that we’re complaining. As The Colonel used to tell us: It beats the alternative. Think on that as you enjoy one last weekend of relaxation before the kiddies head back to class on Sunday. That’s when international schools regulated by the Ministry of Education open their doors for the 2021-2022 school year — and our Blessed Summer of Good Commutes comes to an end.

THE BIG STORIES SO FAR TODAY-

#1- Annual urban inflation accelerated in August on the back of rising food prices and transportation costs. Headline urban inflation rose slightly to 5.7% in August, up from 5.4% in July. Although on a monthly basis, headline inflation fell to 0.1% in August, according to state statistics body Capmas, it is the highest headline inflation rate recorded since November 2020. Reuters also has the story.

Inflation (both global and domestic) will undoubtedly weigh in on the Central Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee meeting on Thursday, 16 September. That said, inflation is still within the CBE’s target range of 7% (±2%), and we have the carry trade plus the US Fed’s tapering of stimulus to keep in mind. Look to our poll of analysts this coming Sunday for their take on what the CBE is likely to do when it meets at the end of next week.

#2- Egypt can handle any tapering by the US Federal Reserve, Finance Minister Mohamed Maait said in an interview with Bloomberg out today. “We are closely monitoring” how the Fed’s decision could affect the cost of borrowing, Mohamed Maait said, adding that “we are taking into consideration our experience with such a situation. We have to be ready, always.”.

#3- Banque Misr will not be selling its 15% stake in Fawry Plus to Fawry, as it sees value in its stake in the company, sources from the bank told Enterprise this morning. The move comes a few days after Fawry announced in a bourse filing that it will buy Banque Misr’s 15% stake and CIB’s 15% stake in Fawy Plus at EGP 1.15 per share, for a total of EGP 16.2 mn per acquisition.

^^ We’ll have chapter and verse on all three stories in Sunday’s edition of EnterpriseAM.

Exporters awaiting overdue subsidy payouts, rejoice. You’ll be collecting this month and next, Finance Minister Mohamed Maait said in a statement this morning. Exporters who are eligible for overdue subsidy payments under the latest incarnation of the subsidy program that launched in July will receive payouts on 30 September and on 28 October. Maait notes that the new program has been popular, with 1,650 companies signing on.

Background: Following years of complaints of delayed payouts, the government launched last year a new program which allowed companies to receive overdue subsidies in bulk instead of in installments over several years, provided that they agree to take a 15% haircut. The current third stage of the program will include exporters in the automotive, ceramics, pharma, electronics, and chemicals industries as well as featuring specific incentives to trade with other African countries.

The government has so far doled out EGP 28 bn since the program was launched last year, Maait notes, with EGP 4.6 bn in arrears paid out in the second stage.

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MEANWHILE- Egypt has officially become the newest member state of the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly said in a press release (pdf) this morning. The move may help Egypt unlock some USD 1 bn in investments, Madbouly added. (We have background and an interview this past July with AFC chief Samaila Zubairu.)

Tahya Misr w Afriqia: “We are already in discussions with AFC on a pipeline of projects, some of which includes supporting covid-19 vaccine manufacture, working closely with the Ministry of Transportation to fund the high speed train and the Cairo Monorail projects, as well as a collaboration with the Sovereign Fund of Egypt to fund renewable projects, and we look forward to executing these projects in line with the country’s Vision 2030.”

Private sector firms hail int’l investments, green initiatives in Egypt ICF: Egyptian firms’ growing ability to obtain finance from international institutions was hailed by speakers in a session titled “Dialogue with the Private Sector” at the inaugural Egypt-International Cooperation Forum (ICF) which wrapped up today, according to a cabinet statement. Other achievements cited include green initiatives and infrastructure projects being undertaken by the government and private sector as well as the opening of new universities nationwide.

Who presented? A number of Egypt’s top companies took part in the forum, including our friends Orascom Construction, Hassan Allam, Elsewedy, TAQA Arabia. Participating development finance institutions included EBRD, IFC, and AfDB.

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi used the form to call on the international community to support a global green recovery, saying it would entail governments, private sector firms, and financial institutions to work together multilaterally to ensure that the green recovery process happens quickly and equitably post-pandemic, according to the State Information Service.

On the sidelines: Nigeria’s Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed revealed that Nigeria would sell USD 3 bn in eurobonds in October in a Bloomberg TV interview today (watch, runtime: 5:54).

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HAPPENING NOW- Climate change was at the top of the agenda for Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly as he met with top UNDP official Khalida Bouzar, according to a cabinet statement. Madbouly pressed Egypt’s case for hosting the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 27) in 2022.

Egypt, Jordan, and Palestine hold tripartite meeting to discuss Palestine-Israel peace talks: Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met with his counterparts, Jordan’s Ayman Safadi and Palestine’s Riyad Al Maliki, to discuss restarting peace talks with Israel, and Gaza reconstruction, according to a cabinet statement.

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** CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from today’s EnterpriseAM:

• MNT-Halan announces blockbuster USD 120 mn fintech round: MNT-Halan has raised c. USD 120 mn from a group of investors that includes PE house Apis, the UK’s Development Partners International (DPI) and Lorax Capital Partners. We believe it’s the largest fintech round ever raised in MENA.
• Our debt may not become Euroclearable until 2022: The Finance Ministry will likely miss its target of making local Egyptian debt “Euroclearable” by November and instead we might be looking at a March 2022 date.
• Egypt to re-export natural gas to crisis-hit Lebanon: Egypt will export natural gas to Lebanon via a pipeline running through Jordan and Syria following an agreement to help relieve the fuel shortage currently paralysing Lebanon

THE BIG STORIES ABROAD? A couple have struck our fancy on this very warm Thursday afternoon, including word that audit firm EY will spend USD 2 bn over the next three years to make sure that folks carrying its business cards around the world get a little bit better at detecting fraud. EY and its rivals have come under pressure to improve their audit capabilities after failing to pick up on fraud at Dubai-based healthcare group NMC and Germany payments outfit Wirecard.

Closer to home– KSA is welcoming the release of classified documents related to 9/11, saying that it will show Saudi was not complicit in the attacks on the US, the Saudi Embassy in Washington said in a statement. President Joe Biden last week signed an executive order directing federal agencies to release what information they can on the attacks. There is no timeline in place for the documents to be declassified.

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SIGN OF THE TIMES #1- With the “worst of the pandemic” now behind us, London’s finance workers are “flocking” back to the office, Reuters tells us in this front-page piece. The City and Canary Wharf are bustling, with offices reporting 33-50% of staff now coming in — up from 20% in some cases last week. The most popular “back to the office” arrangement globally seems to be some version of three days a week. Nearly 40% of white collar professionals want to go back to the office every day of the week, according to a survey for Fortune magazine, but three-days a week is the “sweet spot,” the survey found.

That’s still ringing in our ears as JPMorgan says that an end to the covid crisis is in sight. That doesn’t mean the pandemic is coming to a clear end, the investment bank writes, noting that “while covid-19 is unlikely to disappear, a drop in severe outcomes to levels that are consistent with moderate-to-severe flu seasons is a reasonable threshold at which society will manage an endemic disease without meaningfully impacting the economy.” Check out the slide on CNBC host Carl Quintanilla’s twitter feed.

SIGN OF THE TIMES #2- “Closely watched” investor Cathie Woods’ Ark is cutting its positions in China, liquidating many of its holdings and “leaving only a portfolio of companies that were identifiably ‘currying favour’ with Beijing.” How you treat business owners and investors determines how willing they are to take risks on your economy. Woods is pulling back as Xi Jingping’s Great Capitalist Smackdown shows no sign of abating.

SIGN OF THE TIMES #3- Got a job offer from your current employer’s cross-town rival? You better be ready to prove it if you’re going to use it as a bargaining chip for a raise or a promotion. That’s our takeaway from The Information’s report that Google’s recruiters are asking would-be candidates to show them screenshots of offer letters if they’re claiming a rival offered them a sweeter arrangement.

SIGN OF THE TIMES #4- Need any more proof that hedgies are ascendant after a decade or more in the wilderness? They’re now muscling in on Silicon Valley, poaching transactions from VCs and PE outfits as they closed “a record-smashing USD 153 bn worth of investments in private companies in just the first six months of 2021.”

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???? CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Israeli PM to visit Cairo next week? This is according to Axios’ Barak Ravid, who reports that Naftali Bennett will make an official diplomatic visit to Egypt next week for talks with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi.

This would be the first official visit to Egypt by an Israeli leader in more than a decade:

The official visit would mark a rare occasion in regional diplomacy and a first for El Sisi. The last Egyptian president to host an Israeli prime minister was Hosni Mubarak, who met Benjamin Netanyahu in January 2011. Israeli media reports in 2018 claimed that Netanyahu made a secret visit to meet with El Sisi in Sharm El Sheikh.

The rumored visit comes amid reports that Egypt is preparing a new roadmap to restart Israel-Palestine peace talks, while cordial bilateral relations have recently been on public display. The Egyptian president in August extended the invitation to Bennett to visit, before earlier this week calling Israeli President Isaac Herzog to wish him a happy Rosh Hashanah.

ALSO:

• New school year: International schools begin the 2021-2022 academic year on Sunday, 12 September.
• EFG Hermes’ fourth Virtual Investor Conference runs 13-21 September with the theme of “After Reflation — FEMs in 2022.”
• Sahara Expo: The four-day agricultural conference, the Sahara Expo, will start on Sunday at the Egypt International Exhibition Center.
• AmCham event: Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad will give a speech on strategies for generating green, private sector-led growth at AmCham’s virtual monthly event on Monday, 13 September. Register here.
• Interest rates: The Central Bank of Egypt will meet to review interest rates on Thursday, 16 September.

AND- For the iSheep among us, Apple is holding a virtual event on Tuesday, 14 September. You can expect a new iPhone, new AirPods and probably a new Watch. Apple has scheduled the event for 7pm CLT and shows it running for two hours. You can stream it here.

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☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- We have cooler weather to look forward to this weekend, with daytime highs of 34-35°C during the day on Friday and Saturday and overnight lows of 21-22°C at night, our favorite weather app tells us.

IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE TODAY, MAKE IT THIS- You need to abandon “inbox zero.” [Redact] GTD. And be realistic with your to-do lists. Right now. We’ll forgive the FT Magazine’s Oliver Burkeman for quoting Seneca (does it get any more tech-bro than that?) because his latest piece is so on-point. “Most approaches to time management, not to mention most of our allegedly time-saving technologies, make things worse.” The only thing worse than wasting time jumping from “system” to “system”? It’s reaching inbox zero — or being the fastest on your team to clear menial tasks.

An empty inbox means you managed to answer 100% of your emails — almost assuring more mail to which to reply. The same with menial tasks. “Oh, Ahmed knows how to get that stuff done. Give it to him.”

Instead: Accept that you’ll never get it all done — and that you shouldn’t want to. “A truly practical approach to making the best use of time demands that we stop trying to deny the undeniable, acknowledging not merely that we might not get around to everything but that we definitely never will.” Go read: Endless to-do list? Here’s how not to waste your life.

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You’re going to be hearing a lot about white collar crime in the next little while as the trial of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes gets underway. The charismatic CEO, who explicitly modeled herself on Steve Jobs, raised 100s of mns of USD from investors — and is now charged with having defrauded those backers and consumers alike by lying about the fact that her blood testing devices simply didn’t work.

Feel like you need to get up to speed to “enjoy” the 2020s reboot of the Enron and Worldcom shows? If you’re new to the story, start with Elizabeth Holmes’s last pitch, in New York magazin, which has all the background on her “greatest challenge … convincing a jury that she is not to blame for a massive fraud.” Already up to speed? The FT’s explainer boils down five key angles from the opening of the trial, where opening arguments got underway yesterday in a California courtroom.

SPEAKING OF WHITE COLLAR CRIME- A former Ericsson Egypt employee was charged yesterday by US prosecutors over a “massive” bribery scheme that allegedly ran from 2010 to 2014, according to Reuters. The employee, a dual national of Ethiopia and Sweden, is charged with helping arrange USD 2.1 mn in bribes to Djibouti officials so that Ericsson could land a EUR 20.3 mn contract. Ericsson Egypt pleaded guilty at the time to a “related bribery conspiracy charge” and the head office paid about USD 1.06 bn to settle corruption charges.

ALSO- Cybercriminals are complaining of burnout. The POSes that want to steal everything from your identity to the details on that plastic card that let you make purchases online are worried about work-life balance, the Wall Street Journal reports. Just like any employee in any other industry, cybercriminals are complaining about burnout, saying they earn pocket change and work unending hours. The finding could open a new angle to police the burgeoning “industry,” the Journal suggests.

We guess the crooks that run cybercrime rings have never read The secret to happiness at work in the Atlantic, which argues that “your job doesn’t have to represent the most prestigious use of your potential. It just needs to be rewarding.”

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MORE STUFF to pad-out your reading list well into the weekend:

Wait, there’s such a thing as a “Biden Doctrine”? Apparently it’s “a foreign policy that avoids the aggressive tactics of forever wars and nation building, while uniting allies against the authoritarianism of rising powers.” (New York Times)

One vaccine makes more antibodies than another. Does it matter? Maybe — and the answer to the question will have a significant impact on the still-brewing question of who needs booster shots and when. (Bloomberg)

Is it curtains for “America’s pastime?” The FT’s New York correspondent worries that “desperate measures are required for [baseball], a sport that is losing its hold on the young. Some good ideas here, but still: A UK publication opining about baseball is only a few steps more on-point than the notion of an IRL Ted Lasso coaching a Premier League team. (Financial Times)

???? ON THE TUBE TONIGHT-

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An Egyptian 80’s movie that should be on everyone’s watch list: An Egyptian Story (Hadoota Masria) — which stars Nour El Sherif and Youssra and written and directed by the legend Youssef Chahine — is a metaphorical masterpiece that explores the past of an Egyptian filmmaker as he recalls his experiences in the middle of a heart surgery. The film is the second installment of the ‘Alexandria… Why’ series doesn’t try to hide its autobiographical qualities, referencing Chahine’s previous films and successes. Film savants may liken it to Federico Fellini’s classic 1963 autobiographical take of disillusionment 8 and a Half. But Chahine’s tale is a difficult movie that explores very local and deep-rooted themes like the Egyptian revolution, the influence of the American Dream, and the pressures of Chahine’s own career. The film is out on Netflix.

⚽ Premier League football is back this Saturday after the international break, with eight matches set to kick off gameweek four. The first match will see Crystal Palace and Tottenham hit the field at 1:30pm. A flurry of matches will take place at 4pm: Watford versus Wolves, Brentford take on Brighton, Arsenal face Norwich City (maybe they can score at least one goal some time this season), Southampton will meet West Ham, and finally, Leicester City will look to get past Man City. Rounding out the day are Chelsea and Aston Villa, who kick off at 6:30pm.

Could this Saturday be CR7’s return to the Premier League? Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has yet to reveal his lineup for Man United’s match with Newcastle this Saturday at 4pm, leaving fans pondering whether we’ll see Cristiano Ronaldo play this weekend. Not even the club's press team appear to be in the know, fueling speculation on when we might see the long-awaited return of the former Juventus player. If you’ve been living under a rock, last month’s biggest surprise of the transfer market came, when Cristiano Ronaldo announced he would be returning to Manchester United.

In Serie A: On Saturday, Empoli is up against Venezia at 3pm, Napoli will play Juventus at 6pm, and it’s Atalanta against Fiorentina at 8:45pm.

In La Liga: Saturday will also see Levante play Rayo Vallecano at 6:30pm and Athletic Club will take on Mallorca at 8pm.

???? It’s a huge weekend for tennis fans, starting with the semifinal matches of the US Open later today and tomorrow. All four semifinal matches look thrilling, with three teenagers making their semifinal debuts after a series of matches that have captured the imaginations of fans around the world.

In men’s action: Novak Djokovic continues his quest for a Grand Slam as he takes on Germany’s Alexander Zverev. Meanwhile, Canadian teenager Felix Auger-Aliassime will look to down Daniil Medvedev and ease his way into the final.

In women’s action: Canadian phenom Leylah Fernandez takes on Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka, while British teenager Emma Raducanu will look to get past Greece’s Maria Sakkari.

So, when are the finals? The women play on Saturday evening (our time), while the men face off on Sunday night.

???? EAT THIS TONIGHT-

Works by Cairo design studio Cairopolitan are a big draw at new eatery Attia. Cairopolitan sells a variety of products that draw from everyday scenes and fixtures in Cairo life such as a baladi bread pouch and Camel cigarette laptop sleeves. Located in Nile City Towers, Attia sells the products while also bringing them to life with their menu full of Egyptian street food including foul, tamiya, sujuk, and other favorite local dishes. We love their roz belaban with basbousa — even if our diets hate us for it. Everything else on the menu are the essentials for a great Friday morning breakfast with friends and family in a colorful and cutely-designed space that will get our own creative juices flowing.

???? OUT AND ABOUT-

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Klay Kassem’s exhibit Tales of Scheherazade is on display at TAM Gallery starting tomorrow at 6pm. The works are inspired by the novel ‘One Thousand and One Nights’ and the exhibit will run until 25 September.

On a similar note, Cairo Show is performing the play Yama Fel Gerab Ya Hawy at Cairo Festival City — it depicts scenes from the Arabic-language novel of the same name. It runs today and tomorrow at 8pm.

Ubuntu Art Gallery is hosting Spacious Rhythms, a sculptural exhibition by Taha ElGhobashy, everyday until 18 September.

Take your pup to a pool party tomorrow hosted by 60 Store near Citystars in Madinet Nasr. A ton of activities are available for the humans from horse riding to partying to a DJ, while all dogs will get an examination without charge — and then cool off in a pool. Reach out to them by DM on El Face to get the location and time.

???? UNDER THE LAMPLIGHT-

Named one of the most anticipated books of the year, The Kindest Lie by Nancy Johnson explores contemporary topics ranging from race and social class to motherhood. Set in a time when Barack Obama had just been elected US president, it sees a black engineer decide to revisit her past and look for the child that she gave up for adoption when she was just 17. The characters in this book are all very realistic — none of them perfect and each has so many secrets to unfold. This thought-provoking story will leave you in awe for days, where each reader will definitely walk away with something.

The EGX30 fell 0.7% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 1.20 bn (21.6% below the 90-day average). Local investors were net sellers. The index is up 2.0% YTD.

In the green: Eatern Company (+6.8%), Rameda (+3.5%), and Oriental Weavers (+2.3%).

In the red: Raya Holding (-6.8%), GB Auto (-4.4%), and Egyptian Resorts Company (-3.1%).

Sugar, ceramics, steel and almost everything in between: High gas prices are pushing up the cost of goods and jeopardizing the global economic recovery, Bloomberg reports. Natural gas prices are at record seasonal highs after climbing steadily throughout the summer as European countries find themselves increasingly unable to refill depleted storage supplies. Much of Europe depends on Russia for its gas needs, but with the country limiting its exports to meet high domestic demand, the knock-on effects are already being felt in the rising price of goods as higher production costs are passed on to consumers. That will worry central banks as murmurs of a global inflation problem grow louder.

Prices in Europe keep notching new record highs: Front-month Dutch gas futures have almost tripled since the start of 2021 — and reached a new all-time high today after gaining 1.7% to hit EUR 56.2 per MW/h. Meanwhile in the UK, front-month futures rose beyond 140p per therm for the first time ever yesterday. UK natgas futures have more than tripled year-to-date.

Consumers in Europe are really feeling the strain of rising prices: With gas prices five times higher than 2019 levels, Europeans, still reeling from the effects of the pandemic, are seriously coming under strain. Rising energy, food, and industrial prices drove consumer price inflation in the eurozone up 3% this month. In Spain, people are now paying some 40% more for electricity than they did a year ago, pushing many to take to the streets to express frustration. With winter around the corner for Europe, extreme cold could potentially drive prices even higher and force some factories to shut down.

The UK has already responded by reopening an old coal power plant: As of Tuesday coal generated 2.2% of the UK’s electricity in response to the price increases, despite the government’s commitment to completely phasing out coal by 2024 to meet carbon emissions targets. Gas still constitutes the bulk of the country’s power supply, however, which now sits at 46.5% of the country’s energy mix.

It’s not just a European issue: Winter is coming in the northern hemisphere, and if it turns out to be a cold one, households in the US, which have so far been insulated from the price surge, are also set to feel the pinch. Meanwhile, Chinese ceramic factories have already had to slow down production as a result of spiralling gas costs in Asia, while some emerging market economies could face economic shutdowns and political unrest if faced with shortages and blackouts.

US gas prices are at their highest in more than eight years. Nymex futures gained another 7.5% yesterday to close at USD 4.92 — their highest level since February 2014. Nymex futures did fall 0.3% today to USD 4.90 as of dispatch time.

In some less advanced economies we could be looking at power rationing and unrest: Countries like Bangladesh for example, might have to resort to rationing its power to keep its irrigation systems running. “In many emerging market economies, even slight increases in retail fuel or energy prices can lead to economic hardship and public unrest,” Eurasia Group analysts said in a 31 August note.

5-12 September (Sunday-Sunday): Arab Labor Conference, the InterContinental CityStars Hotel, Cairo, Egypt.

7-9 September (Tuesday-Thursday): Egy Health Expo, Al Manara International Conference, Cairo, Egypt.

8-9 September (Wednesday-Thursday): Egypt-International Cooperation Forum (ICF), Cairo

11-12 September (Saturday-Sunday): International Conferences on Economics and Social Sciences, Cairo

12 September (Sunday): International schools begin 2021-2022 academic year.

12-15 September (Sunday-Wednesday): Sahara Expo: the 33rd International Agricultural Exhibition for Africa and the Middle East.

13 September (Monday): Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad will give a guest speech at AmCham’s monthly virtual event,

13-21 September (Monday-Tuesday): EFG Hermes’ fourth Virtual Investor Conference.

14-30 September (Tuesday-Thursday): 76th session of the UN General Assembly, New York.

15 September (Wednesday): The CFO Leadership & Strategy Summit is taking place in Egypt.

16 September (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

18 September (Saturday): Expiration of United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Daesh/ISIL

21-22 September (Tuesday-Wednesday): The Federal Reserve meets to review interest rates.

22-25 September (Wednesday-Saturday): Cityscape Egypt, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo, Egypt.

29 September (Wednesday): DevOpsDays Cairo 2021 is being organized by ITIDA and the Software Engineering Competence Center in cooperation with DXC Technology, IBM Egypt and Orange Labs.

30 September-2 October (Thursday-Saturday): Egypt Projects 2021 expo, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo, Egypt.

30 September-8 October (Thursday-Friday): The Cairo International Fair, Cairo International Conference Center, Cairo, Egypt.

30 September: Closing of 2021’s first oil and gas tender in the Gulf of Suez, Western Desert, and the Mediterranean.

30 September (Thursday): First tranche of overdue subsidy payouts will be handed to eligible exporters.

October: New legislative session begins — must be held by the first Thursday of October.

October: Romanian President Klaus Iohannis could visit Egypt in mid this month to discuss ways to boost tourism cooperation between the two countries.

1 October (Friday): Businesses importing goods at seaports will need to file shipping documents and cargo data digitally to the Advance Cargo Information (ACI) system.

1 October (Friday): Expo 2020 Dubai opens.

1 October (Friday): State-owned companies and government service bodies selling goods and services to customers that have not yet signed on to the e-invoicing platform will suffer a host of penalties, including removal from large taxpayer classification, losing access to government services and business, and losing subsidies.

6 October (Wednesday): Armed Forces Day.

7 October (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Armed Forces Day.

9 October (Saturday): Public schools begin 2021-2022 academic year

11-17 October (Monday-Sunday): IMF + World Bank Annual Meetings.

12-14 October (Tuesday-Thursday): Mediterranean Offshore Conference, Alexandria, Egypt.

18 October (Monday): Prophet’s Birthday.

21 October (Thursday): National holiday in observance of the Prophet’s Birthday.

24-28 October (Sunday-Thursday) Cairo Water Week, Cairo, Egypt.

27-28 October (Wednesday-Thursday) Intelligent Cities Exhibition & Conference, Royal Maxim Palace Kempinski, Cairo, Egypt.

28 October (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

28 October (Thursday): Second tranche of overdue subsidy payouts will be handed to eligible exporters.

30 October – 4 November (Saturday-Thursday): The first edition of Race The Legends, Egypt.

November: The French-Egyptian Business Forum is set to take place in the Suez Canal Economic Zone.

November: Egypt will host another round of talks to reach a potential Egyptian-Eurasian trade agreement, which can significantly contribute to increasing the volume of Egyptian exports to the Russia-led bloc that includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

1-3 November (Monday-Wednesday): Egypt Energy exhibition on power and renewable energy, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo, Egypt.

2-3 November (Tuesday-Wednesday): The Federal Reserve meets to review interest rates.

1-12 November (Monday-Friday): 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), Glasgow, United Kingdom.

16-17 November (Tuesday-Wednesday): Africa fintech summit, Cairo.

26 November-5 December (Friday-Sunday): The 43rd Cairo International Film Festival.

29 November-2 December (Monday-Thursday): Egypt Defense Expo.

7-8 December (Tuesday-Wednesday): North Africa Trade Finance Summit.

12-14 December (Sunday-Tuesday): Food Africa Cairo trade exhibition, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo, Egypt.

13-17 December: United Nations Convention against Corruption, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

14-19 December (Tuesday-Sunday): The Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theater.

14-15 December (Tuesday-Wednesday): The Federal Reserve meets to review interest rates.

16 December (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

14-16 February 2022 (Monday-Wednesday): Egypt Petroleum Show, Egypt International Exhibition Center, New Cairo, Egypt.

1H2022: The World Economic Forum annual meeting, location TBD.

22-24 April 2022: World Bank-IMF spring meeting, Washington D.C.

May 2022: Investment in Logistics Conference, Cairo, Egypt

16 June 2022 (Thursday): End of 2021-2022 academic year for public schools

27 June-3 July 2022 (Monday-Sunday): World University Squash Championships, New Giza.

**Note to readers: Some national holidays may appear twice above. Since 2020, Egypt has observed most mid-week holidays on Thursdays regardless of the day on which they fall and may also move those days to Sundays. We distinguish below between the actual holiday and its observance.