Your top 5 pieces of business and economic news in March
Your top 5 pieces of business and economic news in March:
- Egypt officially imposes an 11-hour curfew, in effect between 7pm and 6am, for a period of two weeks.
- Flights into and out of Egypt were suspended for an initial two week period (later extended to mid-April), part of a raft of measures intended to curb the spread of covid-19.
- The Central Bank of Egypt made a record rate cut of 300 bps to protect the economy from the covid-19 outbreak.
- President Abdel Fattah El Sisi announces a stimulus and bailout package worth nearly EGP 100 bn to manage the fallout from the spread of covid-19. Among other measures, the Central Bank of Egypt will allocate EGP 20 bn to support the EGX and EGP 27.6 bn will be disbursed to 2.4 mn families.
- Companies encouraged remote work for an indefinite period and schools and universities are ordered closed for at least two weeks, as covid-19 cases mount and the government works to slow the spread of the virus.