Back to the complete issue
Wednesday, 8 January 2020

New central bank board paves way for MPC meeting on 16 January 2020

RATE WATCH- Formation of new central bank board paves the way for monetary policy meeting a week from tomorrow: President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has signed off on the formation of a new board for the Central Bank of Egypt, Al Mal reports, citing state news agency MENA. Six board members were appointed:

  • Financial Regulatory Authority Chairman Mohamed Omran
  • Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Corporation Ali Farmawy
  • Former International Cooperation Minister Naglaa El Ahwany
  • Former Planning Minister Ashraf El Araby
  • Deputy head of the State Council and CBE legal advisor Tamer El Dakkak
  • A representative from the Finance Ministry.

What’s next? The new board was scheduled to meet for the first time this past Sunday, but no post-meeting statement was issued. Sources told Masrawy that the board was due to approve the membership of the next Monetary Policy Committee meeting. The MPC is next due to meet on Thursday, 16 January, having postponed its last meeting of 2019 until a new committee could be constituted. Seven of 10 economists we polled prior to that meeting expected rates to be left on hold.

The new board and MPC compositions come after Tarek Amer was reappointed to a second, four-year term as governor.

MOVES- Meanwhile, Rami Abulnaga has replaced Lobna Helal as deputy governor; Helal was reported last month to be stepping down. Gamal Negm will continue in his role as second deputy governor.

Enterprise is a daily publication of Enterprise Ventures LLC, an Egyptian limited liability company (commercial register 83594), and a subsidiary of Inktank Communications. Summaries are intended for guidance only and are provided on an as-is basis; kindly refer to the source article in its original language prior to undertaking any action. Neither Enterprise Ventures nor its staff assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, whether in the form of summaries or analysis. © 2022 Enterprise Ventures LLC.

Enterprise is available without charge thanks to the generous support of HSBC Egypt (tax ID: 204-901-715), the leading corporate and retail lender in Egypt; EFG Hermes (tax ID: 200-178-385), the leading financial services corporation in frontier emerging markets; SODIC (tax ID: 212-168-002), a leading Egyptian real estate developer; SomaBay (tax ID: 204-903-300), our Red Sea holiday partner; Infinity (tax ID: 474-939-359), the ultimate way to power cities, industries, and homes directly from nature right here in Egypt; CIRA (tax ID: 200-069-608), the leading providers of K-12 and higher level education in Egypt; Orascom Construction (tax ID: 229-988-806), the leading construction and engineering company building infrastructure in Egypt and abroad; Moharram & Partners (tax ID: 616-112-459), the leading public policy and government affairs partner; Palm Hills Developments (tax ID: 432-737-014), a leading developer of commercial and residential properties; Mashreq (tax ID: 204-898-862), the MENA region’s leading homegrown personal and digital bank; Industrial Development Group (IDG) (tax ID:266-965-253), the leading builder of industrial parks in Egypt; Hassan Allam Properties (tax ID:  553-096-567), one of Egypt’s most prominent and leading builders; and Saleh, Barsoum & Abdel Aziz (tax ID: 220-002-827), the leading audit, tax and accounting firm in Egypt.