Good morning, dear readers — and a very happy hump day from all of us at Enterprise HQ. Although we have precious little Egypt business news to bring you this morning, we wouldn’t quite file this issue under ‘workaday.’ We have news that Egypt is in negotiations to locally produce the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine, the Irrigation Ministry has claimed Ethiopia has started filling the GERD just two days before the UN Security Council meets to discuss the dispute, and a spat between the UAE and Saudi Arabia may be about to throw OPEC+ into crisis. All this and more in the news well, below.

It’s PMI day: Egypt’s purchasing managers’ index for June will land shortly after dispatch at 6.15am this morning. We’ll be out with our usual coverage of the release in this afternoon’s PM edition, but if you’re super eager you’ll be able to find the release here later this morning.

Activity in Egypt’s non-oil private sector has been in contraction for a solid six months, after the index registered 48.6 in May, a slight improvement from 47.7 the month before but remaining below the 50.0 mark that separates expansion from contraction.

Fears of mounting inflation were on the minds of businesses surveyed last time around, and will likely continue being a major theme in today’s release — especially with new readings from the Eurozone, the UK, and Saudi Arabia all pointing to elevated cost pressures weighing on firms’ operating expenses. IHS Markit, which conducts the PMI survey, warned in April that a gauge measuring global prices has hit its highest level in a decade due to a combination of post-lockdown pent-up demand and supply constraints.

ALSO HAPPENING THIS WEEK-

The British Egyptian Business Association’s (BEBA) virtual education week concludes today, with the third and final seminar on the digitalization of education in Egypt, which will be held at 12pm.

Egypt has been added to Morocco’s travel list B, imposing stricter regulations on visitors starting tomorrow, according to the Moroccan Press Agency. Russia and Tunisia were also added to the list. Travellers from the three countries who aren’t fully vaccinated will be required to provide a negative PCR test dating less than 48 hours, as well as quarantine for 10 days in a government-designated hotel. List B includes countries either experiencing a spread of new covid-19 variants or are believed to have not disclosed definitive statistics on their epidemiological situation.

***CATCH UP QUICK with the top stories from yesterday’s edition of EnterprisePM:

• MaxAB strikes again: Cairo-based B2B food and grocery platform closed a landmark USD 40 mn series A investment in a round led by impact investor RMBV.
• Vaccines galore: State-owned Vacsera has produced 1 mn Sinovac jabs, pushing ahead with its goal to produce 80 mn for the rest of 2021.
• EFG Hermes One rolled out in Kenya: EFG Hermes Kenya has opened up its online trading platform EFG Hermes One to retail traders the Nairobi Securities Exchange.

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Among the handful of dates you should keep an eye on at the start of the month:

• Fuel pricing: We should hear by Saturday whether the government will raise, hold or cut fuel prices for the coming quarter.
• Foreign reserves: Figures for June will be out early next week;
• Inflation: Data for June will be released next week;

The EGX will hold its board elections for the 2021-2025 term on Wednesday, 14 July, it announced yesterday. Here’s a rundown of the candidates vying to fill board positions.

The Cairo International Book Fair is ongoing at Egypt International Exhibition Center today. The event will run through to 15 July.

Check out our full calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.