The local wheat buying season will end on Wednesday as the government has already surpassed its set target of buying 4 mn tonnes. "Supplies Minister Khaled Hanafi pointed out that the door for receiving local wheat from farmers will close at the end of Wednesday due to lowering local procurement rates," Reuters quoted a Supply Ministry statement as saying.

Interest rate watch: The U.S. Federal Open Market Committee meets to discuss interest rates this coming Tuesday and Wednesday (14-15 June), with the Central Bank of Egypt’s Monetary Policy Committee due to do the same on Thursday. EFG Hermes’ Mohamed Abu Basha has come down on the side of a rate hike, predicting yesterday that the MPC would raise rates 25 bps, writing: “We see May’s sharp inflation acceleration – especially that of core inflation – warrants a move by the central bank. We therefore expect a 25bps rate hike on 16 June meeting, frontloading part of the 50-100bps hike we expect in 2H16 associated with the implementation of VAT.” Picking up where we left off yesterday, that leaves us so far with two analysts predicting a rate hike and one expecting none.