What we’re tracking on 24 May 2017
The central bank’s decision to raise interest rates 200 bps was “historic” and any detractors simply don’t get it, CBE Governor Tarek Amer said yesterday in his first public statement on the move. He implied that those who disapprove of the move are looking for short-term gains. Amer declared that inflation was worse for companies than a marginal hike in interest rates, reports Al Masry Al Youm. Amer asserted controlling inflation was the primary mandate of an “independent central bank.” His comments came at a presser announcing a EGP 30 bn CBE microfinance initiative, which we attended. You can catch our coverage of the presser in Spotlight, below.
Are we joining OPEC’s output cuts or not? The oil cartel is expected to announce a nine-month extension of its output cuts when it meets tomorrow. Kuwait’s oil minister says his Saudi counterpart “has talked to several countries including Norway, including Turkmenistan, including Egypt, and they have made signs of their willingness to join the collaboration,” according to Reuters. We have more in Speed Round, below.
Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern is due to meet President Abdel Fattah El Sisi in Cairo today, after which the two will hold a joint press conference, Ahram Gate reports.
PSA for Giza residents: Water service will be interrupted in certain parts of Giza starting today at 8 AM and until Thursday morning due to construction on the Rod El Farag Axis project, according to the Holding Company for Water and Wastewater.
Al Jazeera learns how hard Karma can hit after the UAE blocked Aljazeera.net, the outlet said on Tuesday.
With Ramadan just days away (we’ll know Thursday evening whether the fast begins on Friday or Saturday), our thoughts have already turned to food. Cue the perfectly timed publication of the New York Times food section’s beautiful, clear and simple How to Make Burgers, with a particular emphasis on using cast iron or other heavy-bottomed frying pans in your kitchen.
It’s turning out to be another crappy year on the dead celebrities front. This past weekend, it was Soundgarden frontman and godfather of grunge Chris Cornell, dead in a suicide at age 52. (We don’t normally do the NYT for music coverage, but they owned coverage of his death with their rock-solid obituary, an early appraisal of his legacy and list of his top 10 songs, which is really missing only Birth Ritual and Heretic.) This morning, it’s Roger Moore, and once again we find ourselves agreeing entirely with A.O. Scott, who writes that “Roger Moore Was the Best Bond Because He Was the Gen X Bond.” Moore was 89 and passed of cancer in Switzerland, according to his obituary.
This morning’s edition of Enterprise is brought to you by the Soundgarden Essentials and Soundgarden Next Steps playlists on Apple Music, with a few of tracks from late ‘80s and early ‘90s concert bootlegs thrown in.