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Thursday, 2 June 2022

Your top 5 pieces of business and economic news in May 2022

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

  • The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) raised interest rates for the second time since March by 200 basis points, bringing its deposit rate to 11.25% and the lending rate to 12.25%
  • Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ will invest USD 10 bn in industrial projects in Egypt, the UAE and Jordan as part of a partnership to finance large-scale projects in “key industries” that “create jobs, support growth, boost industrial production and increase exports.”
  • Egypt’s non-oil private sector continued to contract in April, buffeted by inflation that has been turbocharged by the war in Ukraine as well as by falling demand.
  • Production inputs and raw materials will be exempt from CBE rules handed down in February requiring the vast majority of importers to use letters of credit (L/Cs) to cover imports.
  • Egypt’s unemployment rate dipped to 7.2% in 1Q 2022 from 7.4% the previous quarter. Unemployment was also down 0.2 percentage points compared with the same period last year.

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