The world did not end yesterday: The EGP slumped just over 10% against the USD yesterday, closing the day at about EGP 17.67 per greenback (against 16.05 on Saturday) as banks began offering USD to importers of non-essential goods. Don’t think of it as the EGP sagging: Think of it as demand bidding-up the price of USD as businesses bid for access to greenbacks in the formal banking system for the first time in, well, a long time.

Reuters quotes one banker as saying, “There is a lot of pent up demand [for USD] … There are people who are willing to buy at any price and they are mainly importers of non-essential goods," one banker said. Reuters explains that, “Since the float, more companies have gone to the banks for their [USD], leaving them scrambling for funds while a lack of liquidity means interbank trading got off to a slow start. Banks have focused on buying up [USD] from the informal sector and supplying them to clients rather than selling them on the interbank market.”

Deputy Finance Minister Amr El Monayer is quoted as saying last night that the first draft of the executive regulations to the value-added tax (VAT) is due out within hours. The document, which El Monayer had previously said would be put up for public discussion, is coming out more than a month late.

Pay up, lawyers. El Monayer says all professions will be subject to a 10% schedule tax. That includes accountants and lawyers, the latter of which have sued in a bid to escape the VAT. The “schedule tax” is literally just that: A separate schedule of rates for goods and services that do not, for one reason or another, fall under the 13% baseline rate (rising to 14% next year) to which everyone else is subject. Small shops — lawyers and accountants earning less than the EGP 500,000 threshold to register for the VAT — will be required to pay the schedule tax and will not be able to deduct taxes paid on any “production inputs” they may source. (The accountants, in particular, can complain all they want, but they’re the only profession of which we can think that will see a substantial increase in demand for their services just because the VAT is coming into effect, so…)

Tax Authority is giving business a bit of leeway on VAT registration. Businesses that missed the 9 October deadline to register for the value-added tax are reportedly being given a bit of leeway, with the TA logging late registrants as having met the deadline to avoid them incurring penalties, which senior ministry officials had said could include tax evasion charges.

President Abdelfattah El Sisi has arrived in Portugal for a three-day visit during which he is set to meet with President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and other officials to discuss strengthening diplomatic and economic ties between Cairo and Lisbon. El Sisi and de Sousa will reportedly discuss the possibility of resuming direct flights between Cairo and Lisbon, which were suspended in 2011.