Skip to content Skip to Search
Skip navigation

Egypt

The value of the Egyptian pound has halved since 2022, leading to reduced investment

Egypt’s foreign assets deficit plunges after UAE land sale

Egypt’s deficit in net foreign assets (NFAs) shrank by EGP217.1 billion ($7.04 billion) in February, according to central bank data, after a $5 billion payment from the sale of development rights to prime Mediterranean land. Egypt received the initial $5 billion payment from the UAE in its $24 billion deal at Ras El Hekma peninsula west of […]

A container ship crosses the Gulf of Suez towards the Red Sea before entering the Suez Canal in Al-'Ain al-Sokhna, Egypt, in July

IMF to release $820m from Egypt $8bn loan programme

Egypt will be able to immediately draw $820 million after the executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved the expanded $8 billion financial support programme. “Egypt is facing significant macroeconomic challenges that have become more complex to manage given the spillovers from the recent conflict in Gaza and Israel,” IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said in a statement. […]

Egypt’s population growth rate hits 50-year low

Egypt, the most populous Arab nation in the world, has seen its population growth rate decline by 1.4 percent in 2023, reaching its lowest level in half a century. The rate fell by 46 percent from 2017 to 2023, Ahram Online reported, quoting planning and economic development minister Hala El-Said. The birth rate reached two […]

A man waits for customers at his dates shop in Cairo. The Egyptian government says it will increase tax revenues by 30 percent 'without burdening citizens'

Egypt’s ambitious budget makes private sector a priority

Egypt’s budget for the financial year 2024-25 includes ambitious targets of 4.2 percent growth, a 50 percent increase in private sector investment and a primary surplus of 3.5 percent.  The budget was approved in a cabinet meeting on Wednesday and will be sent to the House of Representatives by the end of the month.  It […]

Egypt's PM Mustafa Madbouly said the government was working on fulfilling the commitments for the Ras El Hekma project

Egypt to get second part of UAE $35bn deal in coming weeks

Egypt will receive the second tranche of payments from the UAE in the coming weeks, Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly has said.  Cairo has received $10 billion as part of the $35 billion deal struck with the UAE sovereign fund ADQ and has converted $11 billion from deposits from the Gulf state at the central bank, […]

Banks in Egypt provide returns on equity of 30% and more, which analysts say is high for the region

Reasons to be cheerful for UAE banks with Egyptian subsidiaries

Despite the plunge in the value of the Egyptian pound, UAE banks’ subsidiaries in the country remain a strong long-term asset, analysts have told AGBI. Three Emirati banks – Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank and Dubai’s Emirates NBD – have acquired Egyptian lenders. The pound-to-dollar exchange rate stood at about EGP31 at […]

Orascom is working on a number of transport projects in Egypt, including lines 3 and 4 of the Greater Cairo Metro

Egyptian builder blames currency turmoil for revenue slump

Egyptian construction giant Orascom has reported a 19 percent decline in revenue to about $3.4 billion last year, attributing most of the drop to the devaluation of the Egyptian pound. Orascom said that without the country’s foreign exchange issues, it would have reported a 5.5 percent increase in revenue compared to 2022, after completing a […]

Bank ABC Egypt's merger with Blom will double its number of branches and ATMs in the country

Egyptian banks complete merger but M&A activity falls

Bank ABC Egypt has announced the completion of its merger with Blom Bank Egypt, which aims to treble its market share in the North African country. The integration has doubled the size of the Egyptian network of branches and ATMs of Bahrain-based Bank ABC. It follows Bank ABC’s acquisition of a 99.5 percent stake in […]

Egypt IMF bank money withdrawal

What Egypt needs to do to please its $60bn backers

A fast-paced four weeks may have transformed Egypt’s short-term economic prospects – but only if the country abides by the programme agreed with the International Monetary Fund, observers say. Egypt’s international partners have pledged almost $60 billion in loans, grants and investment. The central bank has allowed the pound to slide for the first time […]

Experts believe that the plans made with UN Habitat may change significantly depending on the project's developers

Abu Dhabi’s futuristic vision of an Egyptian metropolis

By 2052, Egypt’s Ras El Hekma will be “competing with the most important cities of the world,” according to the new project’s promotional video. Published on February 23, the day the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ bought development rights to this stretch of coastline as part of a $35 billion deal, the video shows […]

Egypt's central bank said it planned to allow the exchange rate to be determined by market forces

Egypt central bank cancels meeting after interest rate hike

Egypt’s central bank has called off the meeting of its monetary policy committee (MPC) on March 28, citing the “sufficiency” of the special meeting held on March 6, during which it raised interest rates by 600 basis points.  The overnight lending and overnight deposit rates were set at 28.25 percent and 27.25 percent at the […]

People walk past a currency exchange point in Cairo. Egypt has secured billions of dollars of international funding in recent weeks

Egypt gets $6bn from World Bank to spur growth

The World Bank Group will offer more than $6 billion over the next three years to support Egypt’s economic recovery amid its foreign currency crunch. The Washington-headquartered group will allocate $3 billion for financial support to government programmes and the remaining $3 billion to the private sector, subject to board approval. The announcement comes after […]

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi talks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The EU has agreed $7.4bn of funding to Egypt

EU agrees $8bn funding package with Egypt

The European Union has agreed a €7.4 billion ($8 billion) funding package and upgraded its relationship with Egypt after a meeting in Cairo on Sunday between the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah El Sisi. The deal consists of €5 billion in concessional loans, €1.8 billion of investments and […]

Egypt has approved funding of €54 million from Germany to finance a smart energy project

Germany commits $282m in low-cost funding to Egypt

Germany has pledged to commit €258 million ($282 million) to Egypt in the form of debt swaps, grants and concessional financing, Egyptian minister of international cooperation Rania Al Mashat said. The government has approved €54 million from Germany to finance the smart energy project within the national platform of the Nexus of Water, Food and […]

The proposed initiative for an industrial zone on the Mediterranean coast aims to position Egypt as a manufacturing and export hub for Chinese products

Egypt and China in talks to set up industrial zone

Egyptian and Chinese officials have engaged in further discussions about setting up a Chinese industrial zone along the Mediterranean Sea, according to a local news report. Egypt’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Ahmed Samir, and Zhang Tao, the acting Chinese Ambassador to Cairo, discussed the progress made since last month’s meeting with Samir’s Chinese counterpart, […]

A woman shopping at a Cairo market. Egypt's inflation rate increase was driven by large spikes in the cost of food, health and education

Egypt’s inflation rate makes record jump in February

Inflation in Egypt rose unexpectedly in February, authorities reported this week, just days after the pound plummeted more than a third against the US dollar. On Sunday, the Egyptian state statistics agency Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (Capmas) announced that annual urban consumer price inflation rose to 35.6 percent last month, from 29.8 […]