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Egypt has withdrawn the operating licences of 16 travel companies for organising unlicensed Hajj trips to Saudi Arabia. A statement from the Egyptian government said the companies would be prosecuted and fined, with the funds used to compensate pilgrims’ families for their loss. Hundreds of Egyptians were among 1,301 people who died of exposure to […]
Carlyle, the Nasdaq-listed private equity company, is creating a new oil and gas company to manage recently-acquired assets in the Mediterranean hydrocarbons market. The new as yet un-named entity will be led by former BP CEO Tony Hayward and will manage a portfolio of gas-weighted exploration and production assets in Italy, Egypt and Croatia, according […]
Dubai has become the most expensive city in the Middle East for expatriate workers, while Cairo and Istanbul were among the cities that saw the biggest rise in the cost of living this year, as soaring inflation impacted wages. Dubai, the UAE’s largest city, saw rental prices rise by about a fifth in the last […]
Last Friday marked 100 days since Egypt, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) second-biggest debtor after Argentina, agreed its latest loan. Eased by a $35 billion development deal with the UAE and increased international concern for Egypt’s economic stability following the outbreak of the war in Gaza, the deal drew a line under more than two […]
The US has allocated funding of $130 million for a range of developmental projects in Egypt, it was announced on Thursday. In a press release published by the US Embassy in Cairo, ambassador Herro Mustafa Garg said that the money would go towards “advancing Egyptian efforts to achieve a brighter, healthier, and more prosperous future […]
The Egyptian stock exchange has announced the launch of a long-awaited shariah-compliant index, a move observers say is likely to attract new investors and boost the North African country’s latent Islamic banking sector. Gulf investors are said to be particularly interested. The chairman of the Egyptian Exchange (EGX), Ahmed el Sheikh, announced that the new […]
More sales of Egyptian state assets from petrol stations to wind farms are likely to be announced in the financial year to June 2025, according to people familiar with the negotiations. A deal with the UAE worth $35 billion to develop a resort at Ras El Hekma on the Mediterranean has eased the pressure on […]
Egypt’s inflation rate dropped below 30 percent in May for the first time in 15 months, slowing at a faster rate than most had predicted. Urban consumer price inflation was 28.1 percent year on year for May, a drop from 32.5 percent in April, the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics announced on Monday. […]
Suez Canal revenues continued to decline in May because of instability in the Red Sea, according to Egyptian media. Revenues fell 64.3 percent year on year to $337.8 million. Last month 1,111 individual ships passed through the canal – down 54 percent on the May 2023 figure of 2,396. Finance minister Mohamed Maait said last […]
The value of Egypt’s agricultural exports in the first five months of 2024 rose 24 percent year on year, following greater land allocation for produce such as oranges and potatoes. The minister of agriculture and land reclamation, Mohamed Al Sayed Al Quseir, told reporters on Thursday that more than 4.5 million tonnes of agricultural produce, […]
A softening of inflationary pressures and an increase in the availability of foreign exchange helped improve business activity and confidence in Egypt in May, according to central bank data and an influential survey. But experts warned that government austerity measures, including a rise in the politically sensitive prices of bread and petrol, may dampen business […]
Egypt’s plan to hike the price of subsidised bread for the first time in 30 years has increased talk of an austerity budget for the coming fiscal year, amid rumours of price increases for medicine and electricity and the phasing out of fuel subsidies. The International Monetary Fund, which is currently preparing a third review […]
Egypt has revised its tourist targets downwards because of the continuing conflicts in the region. However the country is still hoping to receive a record number of visitors in 2024. Egypt’s tourism minister Ahmed Issa told Sky News Arabia this week that his ministry had lowered its expectations down from 18 million to between 15.5 […]
Egyptian banking history was made this month when Misr Digital Innovation (MDI) became the first Egyptian company to receive preliminary approval for a digital banking licence. MDI, a subsidiary of Banque Misr, will open Onebank – Egypt’s first digital bank – by the first quarter of next year at the latest. Experts predict many more […]
Egypt and the UAE are holding talks on issuing contracts for the $35 billion Ras El Hekma development project, according to a news report. “It’s still extremely premature. We are now in the stage of finalising contracts,” Nader El Biblawi, chairman of the Egyptian Travel Agents Association, told Reuters. While no details were given on […]
It’s quite a coup. Hu Jintao (still with us) must be feeling vindicated. The heads of four Arab states are in Beijing to attend the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum, which Hu founded in 2004 to bring together China and the Arab League. Xi Jinping, Hu’s successor as leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), will […]
The Central Bank of Egypt has kept its key interest rates unchanged despite a slowdown in economic growth. The monetary policy committee (MPC) left the lending rate unchanged at 28.25 percent and the deposit rate at 27.25 percent. Inflation has eased since the annual headline and core inflation peaked at 38 percent in September 2023 […]
The American tobacco giant Philip Morris International (PMI) has acquired a minority stake in Egypt’s largest cigarette manufacturer. PMI, which owns brands such as Marlboro, L&M, Merit and Parliament and is the world’s top tobacco company by market value, has bought 14.7 percent of Egypt’s Eastern Company, which also includes cigars and pipe tobacco in […]
Egypt exported a record 7.5 million tonnes of agricultural produce last year, compared with 6.4 million tonnes in 2022 and 5.6 million in 2021. The total value of agricultural exports in 2023 was $8.8 billion, according to minister of agriculture and land reclamation Al Sayed Al Quseir. Egypt’s total number of export partners has increased […]
Egypt will likely host 250,000 Turkish tourists this year as relations between the two nations improve. Cairo hosted around 80,000 Turkish tourists in the first four months of 2024, Amr El-Kady, CEO of the Egyptian Tourism Authority, told the state-run Anadolu Agency. The Egyptian government is working on several initiatives to boost tourism, with a […]
