The global economic recovery is looking increasingly uneven, with a “dangerous divergence” opening up between the developed and developing worlds, the IMF’s Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in a statement during the meeting of G20 finance ministers on Friday. Prospects for global growth remain promising, and the world’s GDP could surpass the IMF’s 5.5% projection. Yet the impact of the pandemic isn’t being evenly felt across the world: Developing countries are expected to suffer per capita income losses up to 22% by 2022, versus 13% in developed economies, she said.

US backs more IMF firepower for emerging economies: US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen came out in support of increasing the IMF’s lending power at the meeting which would boost liquidity for vulnerable countries hit by covid-19, but said that new parameters are needed to ensure the transparent use of the Fund’s reserves, Reuters reported. The expansion of Special Drawing Rights was opposed by the Trump administration, which prevented the fund from increasing lending to developing countries during the height of the covid pandemic.

And it could be playing ball on moves to tax Big Tech: Yellen said during the meeting that Washington will not proceed with the Trump administration’s measure to let some major tech firms like Amazon and Facebook opt into the global digital taxation voluntarily, according to the Financial Times. The US will come up with a resolution for the tax challenges of digitization and a global minimum tax by July, she added. The rules, proposed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development last year, aim to make tech companies pay taxes in every country where they operate and crack down on tax avoidance.

Bitcoin is heading for its worst week since the pandemic-fueled selloff last March, reaching a 24-hour low of USD 45.1k on Friday after trading as high as USD 58.3k less than two weeks ago. The cryptocurrency’s prices turned choppy and slipped 5% since Friday after it was “ridiculously overbought” amid a sell-off in the broader stock market due to rising concerns over surging bond yields, analysts say, according to Bloomberg.

The EGX30 rose 1.6% on Thursday on turnover of EGP 1.83 bn (20.7% above the 90-day average). Local investors were net buyers. The index is up 7.12% YTD.

In the green: Orascom Development Holding (+8.8%), Orascom Investment Holding (+3.4%) and Cleopatra Hospital (+3.3%).

In the red: MM Group (-1.6%) and El Sewedy Electric (-0.3%).