Lamees El Hadidi and Amr Adib returned to our screens yesterday to serve up a night dominated by the economy.

The IMF’s loan conditions got a mention on Kelma Akhira, where Lamees El Hadidi was singing from the same hymn sheet as Finance Minister Mohamed Maait, telling the viewers that the IMF was not demanding bread subsidy reform or cutbacks to social security (watch, runtime: 3:54). She said the IMF wants to see low-interest loan initiatives handled by the Finance Ministry instead of the central bank and the state handling debt better to alleviate burden on the budget. The queen of late night talk also highlighted the IMF’s message in July on the necessity of a more flexible exchange rate, reducing the state’s involvement in the economy and boosting private sector development.

Nothing to see here, folks: Meanwhile, Ahmed Moussa and economist Medhat Nafea on Ala Mas’ouleety (watch, runtime: 6:32) and economic researcher Mohamed Shadi on Masaa DMC (watch, runtime: 3:51) tried their best to convince the country that everything is fine and well with the economy, emphasizing GDP growth and the stable unemployment rate. Meanwhile, Alaa Ezz, secretary-general of Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce (FEDCOC), told El Hadidi that falling international commodity prices will begin to feed through to the Egyptian economy in the next two or three months (watch, runtime: 14:38).

New social protections: The expanded social safety net that was introduced 1 September to protect vulnerable people against price shocks got a mention on El Hekaya (watch, runtime: 2:48) and Kelma Akhira (watch, runtime: 1:52).