Good afternoon, ladies and gents, and welcome to the start of a new week — and World Cup Final Day. We’re counting down the minutes until France and Argentina hit the field today, and we’re also looking forward to watching Wegz performing on the last day of the championship. The singer’s manager confirmed Wegz will be singing during halftime in a phone-in to El Hekaya’s Amr Adib (watch, runtime: 4:46).

THE BIG STORY TODAY

New task force to decide fair price of strategic commodities: The Supply Ministry is setting up a new committee that will be tasked with deciding on a compulsory fair price for rice, in addition to non-compulsory fair prices for up to 15 other strategy commodities, according to a ministry statement. These prices will factor in the cost of production and inputs, Minister Ali El Moselhy said.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

It’s a thoroughly mixed bag of nuts and bolts in the international business press this afternoon. Among the stories making the rounds: China is still buckling under a massive outbreak of covid-19 after rolling back pandemic restrictions (Financial Times | Reuters); and former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is surrendering himself to extradition to the US (CNBC).

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** CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from today’s EnterpriseAM:

• The IMF has approved a USD 3 bn loan for Egypt, which is expected to unlock bns of USD of vital funding as the country struggles amid global headwinds.
• The Central Bank of Egypt is likely to raise interest rates when it meets on Thursday thanks to rising inflation, according to our interest rate poll.
• valU to spend USD 25 mn on regional + product expansion: EFG Hermes’ buy-now-pay-later platform valU expects to invest some USD 25 mn to complete its expansion to Saudi Arabia and roll out new products in early 2023.

*** It’s Inside Industry day — your weekly briefing of all things industrial in Egypt. Inside Industry focuses each Sunday on what it takes to turn Egypt into a manufacturing and export powerhouse, ranging from initial investment and planning to product distribution, through to land allocation to industrial processes, supply chain management, labor, automation and technology, inputs and exports, regulation and policy.

In today’s issue: 2022 was a year of ups and downs for Egypt’s industrial players. We take a look at some of the big themes and trends that played out in the sector.

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EGX-listed Pachin will brief shareholders on acquisition offers it has received in its ordinary general assembly on Tuesday, 20 December. Dubai-based National Paints Holdings has offered to purchase 100% of the company for EGP 29 per share, valuing it almost EGP 700 mn and far outbidding earlier offers from Universal Building Materials and Chemicals (Sipes) and Saybad Industrial Investment that have since been withdrawn.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- The mercury will rise to 25°C during the day tomorrow before falling to 13°C at night, our favorite weather app tells us.