The cabinet shuffle was the only thing of note on the minds of the nation’s Talking Heads, prompting Finance Minister Amr El Garhy to make the rounds for the second day in a row.

Al Hayah Al Youm’s Tamer Amin spoke with El Garhy on the merger of the ministries of investment and international cooperation. The briefs are related, said El Garhy, especially when considering that a number of international lenders (namely the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) has made private sector growth and investment a pillar of its aid strategy. El Garhy once again had to explain that the inflation levels will taper off in a few months and that the EGP should strengthen somewhat at the same time (watch, runtime: 7:45).

Amin also spoke to the incoming ministers of transportation (Hisham Arafat, who said that he’ll focus on river transport — watch, runtime: 3:45) and higher education (Khaled Abdel Ghaffar — watch, runtime: 3:11).

Over on Hona Al Assema, Lamees Al Hadidi picked up the House of Representatives’ discontent with the appointment of Abdel Moneim Al Banna as the Agriculture Minister. MP Magdy Malak — who you might remember as having led the wheat corruption investigation which toppled former Supply Minister Khaled Hanafy — told Lamees that allegations plagued Al Banna during his time as head of the Agriculture Research Centre. Malak further alleges that there are 18 cases pending against the incoming minister.

Rep. Hamid Kamal from the 25-30 Coalition said they voted against the lineup as they were not convinced of the need for the shuffle or of the basis on which ministers were selected (watch, runtime: 1:09:36).

House Budget Committee chair Yasser Omar told Yahduth fi Masr’s Sherif Amer that he was surprised at the replacement of Planning Minister Ashraf El Araby after what he described as his good performance over the last few years, while MP Samir Ghattas said they expected the Minister of Health should have been removed. MP Osama Aboul Magd said that the operational structure of the Supply Ministry needs to change “so that people can feel a difference.”

The grandstanding and bashing of the subsidy reform agenda frankly made us frothy with rage, so we decided to focus on more important matters than what debutants think about the economy.

We didn’t think we’d ever say this, but Kol Youm’s Amr Adib came to the rescue with an economy-focused episode that featured El Garhy, who spoke on fixing the custom tariff exchange rate. The appreciation of the EGP will lead the ministry to amend the rates today, he said adding that the new rates will help drive down prices of goods. El Garhy appeared unenthusiastic about the Immigration Ministry’s plan to grant expatriate Egyptians customs breaks on cars they bring back to Egypt, stating that it would create major differences between those living in Egypt and abroad (watch, runtime: 22:28).