It’s interest rate day: As our poll showed this week, analysts are split down the middle about whether the bank will announce its first rate cut of the new year or if it will play it safe and keep them on hold for another six weeks.

EGP WATCH: The EGP gained another two piasters against the greenback yesterday to reach 15.54. The currency has now risen by a remarkable 46 piasters in the seven weeks since the turn of the year. You can read our breakdown of the EGP surge here.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko wraps up his two-day visit to the capital today, where he is expected to attend a meeting of the Belarus-Egypt Business Cooperation Council.

Egypt to host meeting of Africa’s top judges on Saturday: The Supreme Constitutional Court will host on Saturday the annual meeting of African chief justices, supreme court presidents, and heads of constitutional courts, reports El Watan. The three-day meeting will bring together 100 judges from 35 countries.

As February races to an end, it’s time to look at events that will drive the news agenda in March:

• EFG Hermes is holding its annual One on One conference on 2-5 March at Atlantis, Dubai. The gathering is the world’s largest frontier- and emerging-market-focused investor conference.
• Business Today’s bt100 awards ceremony (pdf) takes place on Tuesday 3 March.
• The two-day Women Economic Forum (pdf) gets underway on Wednesday, 4 March in Cairo.
• The Union of Arab Banks will hold a three-day forum for risk officers on 6-8 March in Hurghada.
• A one-day investment conference for the Suez Canal Economic Zone will take place on Saturday, 7 March.

Rejoice: Egypt is devoid of corona. The sole person in Egypt infected with covid-19 is recovering and remains quarantine imposed by the Health Ministry, Reuters reports the World Health Organization as saying yesterday, noting that he has now tested negative for the virus. “He will remain in quarantine until the full 14-day period is over and will be undergoing further required tests to ensure he was fully recovered,” a spokesperson said in an email.

Other developments on the covid-19 front overnight:

There were only 394 new cases of El corona in China yesterday, but Iran reported its first two cases and first two deaths from the viral infection.

Economic impact: The IMF says covid-19 could present a threat to a “fragile” global economic recovery this year and the US Federal Reserve’s Open Markets Committee flagged the bug as “a new risk to the global growth outlook” when they met in January at a meeting that saw them leave interest rates on hold. The NYT and CNBC have more, or you can check the minutes yourself. Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, meanwhile, has likened the virus’ impact on the global oil market to a house fire, and China cut interest rates to prop-up its virus-hit economy.

Investors are resorting to unusual data to assess how the Chinese economy is reacting to the coronavirus outbreak. Data analytics firms are using everything from air pollution and road congestion levels to food delivery and airline bookings to piece together how the pandemic will affect economic growth, the Financial Times reports. Chinese factories are slowly reopening after a prolonged shutdown, but workers are struggling to return to their jobs thanks to travel restrictions.

Investment banks are spending big to ensure they’re not left in the dust by fintech. Banks are spending USD 72 bn a year on average — around 18% of their operating expenses — on IT infrastructure to keep up with innovations in the fintech industry and remain competitive, Moody’s Investors’ Service said yesterday.

The race for the Democratic nomination kicks into second gear on Saturday when Nevada holds its caucuses. Progressive senator Bernie Sanders has emerged the clear frontrunner ahead of the vote, which local party officials are hoping will not be a rerun of the botched Iowa caucuses earlier this month. On that front, the New York Times has a good breakdown of what happens when you pair technology with an arcane electoral system many see as not fit for purpose (yes, in Las Vegas card games are actually used to award delegates).

Would-be nominees debated overnight in Las Vegas, and Bloomberg founder Mike Bloomberg was the punching bag of the evening in his first debate appearance after launching a non-traditional late candidacy. Politico, the WSJ and the New York Times have live analysts of the debate, which was still going on at 5:30am CLT. The consensus among the pundits: It’s the “most brutal debate so far.”

After Saturday, keep your eyes on the primary in South Carolina (Saturday, 29 February) and then Super Tuesday on 3 March, which will see around a third of all delegates up for grabs as voters from Maine to California head to the polls.

Note that that was 29 February — happy leap year, y’all.

Microsoft Office has a new, unified iOS app — the one we mentioned a couple of months back is now out of beta and rolling out live on Apple’s App Store. 9to5 Mac has the story, or you can jump directly to Microsoft’s preview page. The app provides Word, Excel, PowerPoint in a single app with a bunch of what appear to be cool new features.

A weekend reading recommendation: The woman shaking up the diamond industry, wherein Eira Thomas uses “radical new methods to find some of the biggest uncut gems in history.” (New Yorker)