Speaking of the exchange rate: More than 40% of you are budgeting for a USD : EGP exchange rate at EGP 18.51 or above, but only one third of you see the currency staying in that band by midyear. Our latest reader survey also found that almost half of you see your company or fund increasing its investments in Egypt this year, and more than 60% of you see business conditions improving in 2017.

What sector will beat market expectations in 2017? Real estate, banking, export-oriented businesses, food and financial services were your favourites. Learn more about what you expect of the new year in our latest Enterprise Reader Survey, which we released at the end of last week. While you’re there, you can also peruse:

• Thoughts from our readers on the year ahead, including the fact that there’s apparently “some serious head-hunting going on in the PE industry from global funds looking at Egypt.”
• Our year in numbers, starting with the 530 issues and >5.4 mn emails we dispatched
• Learn more about the 26,192 people (on average) who read us every day.
• Check out the most-clicked of the 24,253 stories, images, photos and videos we ran last year.

It’s always an honor to be recognized by the wider community, but we’re particularly chuffed that Al Masry Al Youm chief Abdel Moneim Said picked up on our prescriptions for what Egypt needs in 2017, focusing largely on the idea of an impatient government and a patient private sector. Noting that Egyptian culture places a rather high value on patience, Said says that the government should step away from that culture, while the private sector should embrace it during this period of reform. On the front page of the print edition, no less. Thank you, sir.