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Monday, 28 December 2020

Your top 5 pieces of business and economic news in December

Your top 5 pieces of business and economic news in December:

  • Sentiment: We received contradictory data points on business sentiment last month, with an HSBC survey indicating confidence heading into 2021 but November’s PMI had only 12% of firms forecasting growth next year due to uncertainty caused by the pandemic.
  • Inflation: Headline annual inflation hit a five-month high in November driven by a rise in food prices.
  • Privatization: Five companies have been earmarked to restart the state privatization program in the coming months, Public Enterprises Minister Hisham Tawfik said, a week after the Sovereign Fund of Egypt announced the first two military-owned firms to be offered to investors.
  • Banking: The banking sector should prepare for a rise in bad loans in 2021 but most remain sufficiently capitalized to weather the storm, analysts said.
  • Tax: Some 11k large and medium-sized firms will begin using the unified tax platform on 1 January as the government begins to trial the new system.

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