Let’s get the *really* important news out of the way: You’re looking at a four-day weekend: At least if you work in banking or finance. The Central Bank of Egypt will observe Eid El Fitr through Monday, according to a statement it put out yesterday. Thursday is expected be the last day of Ramadan, with the Eid El Fitr holiday starting on Friday. We look forward to working on a caffeinated state when our first post-Ramadan issue hits your inboxes on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, we have a packed issue for you today. Let’s get started:

Prime Minister-designate Mostafa Madbouly could unveil his cabinet as early as today, presenting the lineup to President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, according to Al Shorouk. The domestic press is in overdrive speculating about who is in and who is out. Typical us this report in Al Masry Al Youm that claims the new Council of Ministers will see as many as 10 new faces and add more women to its ranks. “Unnamed government officials” tell both Al Shorouk and Al Mal that Deputy Housing Minister Essam El Gazzar will inherit Madbouly’s old post of Housing Minister. Both newspapers are also suggesting that Dr. Hala Zayed, who heads up the 57357 Children’s Cancer Hospital, will get the nod to replace Ahmed Rady as Health Minister.

As for the Cabinet economic group, the consensus in the domestic press is that our friends Amr El Garhy and Tarek Kabil could be leaving office after periods of distinguished service. The domestic press continues to tout Vice Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait as our next finance minister and Engineering Industries Export Council boss Amr Nassar as the incoming minister of trade and industry. El Garhy and Kabil staying would be good for business —but both of their supposed successors are pro-business choices, signaling that for policy continuity would be the order of the day. Maait told Youm7 yesterday that he “has yet to receive an official nod.”

We’re in the midst of what some are calling “the world economy’s most important week of the year.” Donald Trump is feuding with his closest allies, having alienated the rest of the Group of Seven industrialized nations and taken remarkably personal shots at Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is being backed by everyone from UK Prime Minister Theresa May to European Council boss Donald Tusk. That backdrop leads today’s front pages (FT | WSJ | NYT) as the world economy gears up for what Bank of America is calling the “world economy’s most important week of the year,” Bloomberg reports. At stake:

• Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un meet tomorrow in Singapore in a high-stakes game of nuclear diplomacy. The same day, the US government will release its monthly inflation report, giving us a sense of whether and how the US economy is growing.
• The UK’s Brexit legislation goes back to the House of Commons, sparking debates and votes set for Tuesday and Wednesday on topics including whether Britain should try to remain in a customs union with the EU.
• On Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve looks set to hike interest rates for the second time this year.÷
• On Thursday, the European Central Bank will start discussing how and when to end its bond-buying program.
• Also Thursday: Russia’s Vladimir Putin and KSA’s Mohammed bin Salman will get together at the opening game of the World Cup, offering a chance to confirm they’re on board with an oil production increase just a week before a “crucial OPEC meeting in Vienna.”

All of this comes amid more talk of an “emerging-markets rout” sparking “contagion fears,” with both the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times getting in on the party (also here and here).

Against that backdrop, it should be an interesting MPC meeting this month: Inflation cooled again in May, rising at the slowest pace in two years, according to data released yesterday by CAPMAS (we have chapter and verse in Speed Round, below). A common thread among analysts discussing the results is that this should give the CBE more breathing room during the next monetary policy committee meeting on 28 June, especially as the government is expected to cut fuel subsidies very soon. EFG Hermes and Beltone Financial joined the chorus yesterday, telling clients in research notes that they expect the central bank to leave interest rates on hold when it meets at the end of this month.

Other emerging market central bankers are raising interest rates: India, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan and the Philippines, have all raised rates in the past few weeks to counter the EM sell-off and a resurgent USD, the FT reports. All told, EM countries have tightened policy 22 times in 2018.

The US Fed and the European Central Bank could just make it worse, with some expecting both the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank to raise rates to signal confidence in global economic growth, despite risks of a trade war, currency swings and political turbulence.

Back on planet finance:

An Abraaj audit found corporate and investor cash were commingled, but says there is no evidence of embezzlement, the Financial Times’ Simeon Kerr reports in an exclusive, having gotten his hands on briefing notes prepared last week for creditors. “Abraaj dipped into investor funds because of cash shortages at the group, but there is no evidence of embezzlement, a forensic review of two funds at the struggling private equity firm by Deloitte has found,” Kerr writes. Creditors are trying to give Abraaj breathing room to restructure its USD 1 bn in debt, Cerberus Capital Management is still making a USD 125 mn play for Abraaj’s fund management business, and the Dubai Financial Services Authority apparently backs the plan. But the Kuwaiti pension fund is still looking to play the spoiler by forcing Abraaj into bankruptcy proceedings.

Bulge bracket investment bank profits are at pre-financial crisis levels, the FT reports elsewhere, noting that “the world’s top investment banks made more money in 2017 than in the year before the collapse of Lehman Brothers, highlighting the industry’s resilience from a crisis that threatened to overwhelm it.”

So, when do we eat? For those of us observing, Maghrib is at 6:56 pm CLT today. You’ll have until 3:08 am tomorrow to finish your sohour.