** Take our quarterly reader survey and we’ll take at least two of you to lunch… What are the biggest challenges facing businesses in Egypt? Were the last three months good for doing business? Where do you and your business see the exchange rate stabilizing? Help us help you find out by taking our quarterly reader poll for 1Q2017. The survey will only take a couple of minutes to complete and, as always, you don’t need to answer every question — but we’ll be ridiculously grateful if you do.

…at the Four Seasons Nile Plaza. We’ll draw the names of two readers who filled in all survey questions and send them to lunch with the editors of Enterprise at the Four Seasons Nile Plaza (that’s the one in Garden City). Each reader will be entitled to bring a friend or colleague. If you’re interested, make sure you leave your full name, email address and best telephone number at the end of the survey. The poll closes next Tuesday, and we’ll announce the results and the names of our lunch guests on Sunday, 2 April.

Central bank Governor Tarek Amer has not resigned and told Al Arabiya he will return to work “soon” after having had surgery. Amer said “there is no reason” for him to resign as CBE governor, particularly after having moved to float the EGP in November. Rumors had been circulating over the weekend, prompted by a story on a tabloid website (previously well-sourced on CBE issues) that Amer had stepped down.

It will be a busy day for: The House of Representatives. The House Economics Committee will begin discussion of the USD 12 bn IMF bailout agreement. The committee has reportedly invited Finance Minister Amr El Garhy and three of his deputies, as well as Central Bank Governor Tarek Amer, to join the discussion, Al Borsa says. The agreement will not be going to a plenary session for a vote before it gets a seal of approval from both the economics and budget committees, but a member of the latter said that it was not yet on their agenda. The Legislative Committee signed off on the pact two weeks ago. The House will also discuss the Contractor’s Compensation Act during its general assembly meeting today, MP Mohamed Badawy tells Al Shorouk. Contractors had been threatening to derail projects due to what they perceived as delays in passing the bill that would compensate them for losses incurred on government contracts as a result of the EGP float and presumably see the government reprice contracts to reflect the new cost base. Also expected today: A plenary session debate of an amended version of the protest law (an article of which was earlier declared unconstitutional), and MPs will begin discussing a bill to create a 10-member National Election Commission.

The cabinet economic group will be meeting today to discuss the FY2017-18 budget, Al Ahram reports. Expenditures will surpass EGP 1.1 tn on the back of increased spending on subsidies and social welfare programs, in addition to making good on constitutional requirements of allocating 8% of total state expenditures to health and education, which Prime Minister Sherif Ismail had promised earlier this month. Finance Minister Amr El Garhy had previously told the newspaper that total spending on subsidies should come in at EGP 385 bn, up from EGP 285 bn in the current fiscal year, while social welfare programs, including Takaful and Karama, will cost the state around EGP 200 bn. A Finance Ministry source also tells the newspaper that the budget will target 4.8% GDP growth and a budget deficit ranging between 8.5 and 9.5% of GDP, which will push down total public debt to 92-94% of GDP.