The FEI is pressuring the central bank to structure a relief program for manufacturers caught upside down by the float of the EGP. To hear the domestic press tell it, the Central Bank of Egypt and Federation of Egyptian Industries discussed yesterday with bankers a series of measures designed to ease pressure on companies struggling to cope with FX losses caused by the float of the EGP on 3 November. The FEI says the measures — which have not been announced by the central bank, and some local media outlets are positioning as having taken the form of “verbal instructions” to banks — could include the earmarking of EGP 20 bn at lower interest rates for industry, the rescheduling of certain debts over a three-year period, and allowing bankers and borrowers to agree to a fixed exchange rate at which companies could repay debt they took on prior to 3 November. CBE Governor Tarek Amer is said to have attended the meeting. Our take: Coverage in the domestic press this morning reads to us a lot like FEI pressuring CBE to offer relief, and there are no statements on the CBE’s website or in our inboxes, making it unlikely this is a ‘done deal.’ The CBE is telling banks to speak with their clients — surprising, right? — and is otherwise kicking the can down the road.

In parallel, industry lobby groups are pressuring President Abdel Fattah El Sisi “to take ‘emergency measures’ to save Egyptian companies and industries” after the float of the EGP, Ahram Online reports, pointing to a full-page ad in state-owned daily Al-Ahram in which second-tier lobby groups focused on the interests of companies in specific areas (including the 10 Ramadan, 6 October, Obour and Sadat City investors’ unions) all “explained that Egyptian companies are facing bankruptcy as they are required to pay back bank loans at the new exchange rate, even though they have already sold their products using the old exchange rate.”