Franklin Templeton sees Egypt outperforming in 2017: The UAE and Egypt are the Middle East stock markets “poised to perform best in 2017,” Bassel Khatoun, Franklin Templeton Investments’ MENA equity CIO, told Bloomberg. Khatoun says the house view on Egypt is “more controversial” than their bullish outlook on the UAE, but they like it because they believe that, with the float of the EGP, “things will be adjusted. [Egypt] has fantastic demand and a growing population, but since 2011 it has suffered from a lack of [USD] availability and from security issues, resulting in a drop in tourism. We think that will change now. With the IMF funding, and the [USD 12 bn] it is getting now, we think there is an opportunity for Egypt to come back to those very high growth levels that it used to have between 2003 and 2008.” Franklin Templeton is bearish on Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and North African markets, but neutral on Kuwait.

Elsewhere on Bloomberg: The biggest challenge for Egypt’s currency market now is for commercial banks to attract USD from within the market, the news service’s Alaa Shahine says on Bloomberg Markets: Middle East (runtime 03:04). The country also awaits more foreign investment inflows, he adds, saying that one of the key benchmarks to keep an eye on is the performance of the local currency fixed income market and the revival of the carry trade.