What we’re tracking on 28 November 2016
The EGP eased slightly against the USD again yesterday, edging closer to what some bankers think is a market-clearing rate north of EGP 18 to the greenback. The CBE reported average buy / sell rates of 17.56 / 17.94 yesterday against 17.48 / 17.91 on Sunday.
Egypt is one of “top three global winners” in a Trump presidency, a former USAID project officer writes in a commentary for Reuters, noting the US president-elect’s kind words for President Abdel Fattah El Sisi after the two met in New York earlier this fall and suggesting that “the fact that Sisi was the first foreign leader the president-elect spoke to after his big win only further demonstrates that Egypt looks set to be a winner from Trump’s victory.”
Speaking of Trump: Yesterday was a big day for one of Trump’s keystone economic policies — in a way that should resonate for those of us here at home who are obsessed with investment in infrastructure. Forget about his so-far baseless assertion that mns voted illegally for Hillary Clinton: “Donald Trump’s economic plans received strong backing from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on Monday, with the international organisation predicting the president-elect’s infrastructure plans would increase US growth, combat inequality and energise discouraged workers,” reports the Financial Times (paywall).
The catch, the Wall Street Journal (paywall) writes, is that “those gains would be lost if [Trump] pressed ahead with threatened tariff increases that triggered retaliation.”
Citi’s Global Consumer Conference takes place on today and tomorrow in London.
We really, really hope you’re not flying Lufthansa today or tomorrow. The German airline has cancelled 1,700 flights between today and tomorrow after failing to reach an agreement with its pilots’ union on a new contract.
Abandon all hope, ye who must venture into the city’s fair streets Wednesday or Thursday. The Meteorological Authority continues its weather advisory, warning of rain with a chance of thunderstorms starting as early as today and continuing into Wednesday and Thursday.