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Egypt

Investors are increasingly interested in startups aiming to improve, expand and optimise the agricultural and food industries

Agtech startups and Egypt are hot prospects for Mena funding

Startups across the Middle East and North Africa region raised $125 million in funding in December last year, with Egyptian companies leading the pack, ahead of regional powerhouses the UAE and Saudi Arabia. A joint report by Wamda and Digital Digest showed that Egyptian startups secured $45.7 million across 11 deals in December, more than […]

Plant, Produce, Food

Egypt’s pound hits new lows after shift to more flexible forex regime

Egypt’s pound weakened by more than 13 percent to a new low below 32 to the US dollar on Wednesday as the central bank moved to a more flexible exchange rate under the terms of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) financial support package. The pound’s decline prompted speculation as to how far the currency might […]

Turkey Sakarya gas

Egypt awards exploration rights for offshore blocks to ExxonMobil

US oil and gas major ExxonMobil has obtained exploration rights to two offshore blocks in Egypt’s outer Nile Delta, Ahram Online reported, citing a company statement. The two blocks – Masry and Cairo – stretch over 11,000sq km, with exploration expected to start in 2023 after the government grants its final approval. “The addition of […]

Helmet, Person, Pipeline

Egypt orders ministries to curb spending amid forex crunch

Egypt’s government has instructed ministries to cut non-essential spending until the end of the fiscal year in June as it tries to cope with continuing pressure on its currency and rising inflation. The decision, dated January 4 and published in the official gazette this week, includes the postponement of any new national project heavily reliant […]

US-based energy corporation Apex is expanding its interests in Egypt's Western Desert through acquisitions

Texan energy firm expands Egyptian oil and gas footprint

Apex International Energy has announced the acquisition of interests in four additional concessions in Egypt’s oil-producing Western Desert region. Purchased from IEOC Production, a unit of Italian energy firm Eni, the new concessions will increase Apex’s production capabilities by 65 percent — up to 11,500 barrels per day. Apex, who are based in Houston, Texas, […]

Tunisia

Egypt’s inflation accelerates to 21.3% beating expectations

Egyptian annual urban consumer inflation in December rose to 21.3 percent from 18.7 percent in November, exceeding analyst expectations, data from the statistics agency CAPMAS showed on Tuesday. The inflation figure was the highest since December 2017, when it hit 21.9 percent. The price rises followed a currency devaluation in October and continued restrictions on […]

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank’s stake in ADIB Egypt reaches over 52%

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) has announced the increase of its ownership in ADIB Egypt to more than 52 percent, the UAE state-run WAM news agency reported. In a disclosure to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, ADIB stated that it had acquired 9.6 million shares from National Investment Bank (NIB), representing 2.4 percent of ADIB […]

Cairo monorail

Rising demand for green bonds, despite ‘bleaching’

Global issuance of green bonds has increased by an average of 70 percent each year between 2016 and 2021. The market for environmental, social and corporate (ESG) governance finance in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region remains small compared to elsewhere, but it is growing quickly. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund issued $3 […]

Egypt has sufficient reserves to meet the upcoming external debt obligations in 2024, said Morgan Stanley

Egypt’s currency weakens further amid higher dollar demand

Egypt’s currency weakened on Thursday by about 2.3 percent against the US dollar, though bankers said trading was thin and demand for dollars high following the third effective devaluation of the pound in less than a year. The Egyptian pound (EGP) closed at 27.11 per dollar, according to the central bank, after fluctuating more than […]

AMF Egypt

Egypt bonds jump after latest currency devaluation

Egypt’s government bond prices jumped and Egyptian pound non-deliverable forwards (NDFs) climbed 5.5 percent to seven percent to 29.4-32.4 per dollar on Wednesday after the central bank devalued the currency for the third time in less than a year. Egypt’s central bank allowed the pound to weaken to 26.49 to the dollar earlier from about […]

Egypt

Egypt private sector activity continues to shrink in December

Activity in Egypt’s non-oil private sector contracted in December for the 25th straight month as inflation, a weaker currency and continued import controls dampened business, a survey showed on Wednesday. The S&P Global Egypt Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to 47.2 in December from 45.4 in November, but was still below the 50.0 threshold that […]

The 70-turbine wind farm will cover an area of 57 sq km

Ducab powers giant wind farm as UAE-Egypt trade ties strengthen

Ducab Group, one of the UAE’s largest manufacturers, is supplying 633km of cable to a new Egyptian wind farm in a move that reinforces the strong industrial partnership between the two countries. The Gulf of Suez project will play a key role in Egypt’s commitment to generate 42 percent of all electricity from renewable energy […]

Fintech businesses have seen strong growth in the Mena e-payments sector

UK fintech Total Processing to expand to Saudi and Egypt

Online payments firm Total Processing plans to start operating in Saudi Arabia by the middle of 2023 and then in Egypt, after achieving 30 percent month-on-month revenue growth since it launched in Dubai in 2021.  The company, headquartered in the UK, has witnessed strong growth in the Mena e-payments sector as e-commerce booms and governments […]

Egyptian sovereign fund attracts investments worth $1.5bn

The Sovereign Fund of Egypt has attracted 43 percent of total foreign direct investment, or EGP37 billion ($1.49 billion), since 2018, Ahram Online newspaper reported, citing a statement by Egyptian presidential spokesman Bassam Rady. The money has been invested in 14 projects across several economic sectors, including green hydrogen, water desalination and education. “This will […]

Egypt increases home loan repayment limit to 50%

Egypt’s Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) has increased the maximum installment limit for mortgage finance schemes up to 50 percent of the purchaser’s income, according to a local media report. Previously, the maximum limit was set at 40 percent. This aims to increase the number of beneficiaries from real estate financing, said FRA Chairman Mohamed Farid, […]

Egypt lifts import curbs, backs bigger private sector role

Egypt has lifted a key restriction on imports and approved a list of economic activities the government would leave to the private sector, in an effort to meet two key conditions attached to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) $3 billion support package. In a statement, the central bank said it dropped a requirement for importers […]

Gold prices hit all-time high in Egypt as local currency weakens

The price of gold in Egypt has risen to unprecedented highs as nervous savers seek refuge from a weakening currency and some companies export bullion to raise scarce dollars to fund imports, industry experts say. Figures from the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce’s (FEDCOC) gold division show the price of 21-carat gold surpassing EGP […]

Plant, Grain, Produce

Egypt plans to double exports to $100bn annually

Egypt plans to double exports to $100 billion annually by rationalising imports and labor-intensive and strategic industries, Egypt Today newspaper reported. Agricultural exports reached six million tons in 2022, up 200,000 tons from last year. Among the top crops were citrus (1.7 million tons), potato (621,900 tons) and onion (510,552). Exports of frozen strawberries have […]