The return of the Egyptian automobile giant.. New expectations for the Central Bank meeting.. An increase in public sector wages.. Welcome to the Saturday news harvest.
Starting with Dr. Mostafa Madbouly, Prime Minister, who spoke during Al-Nasr Automotive Company’s celebration of starting production again after a hiatus that lasted more than 15 years, at the beginning of which he welcomed the attendees in one of the national industrial castles. It is Al-Nasr Automotive Company, considering that this day represents a holiday, as everyone dreamed that this industrial castle would return to life again, and so the government has sought every means over the past years to revive this castle, through serious and persistent attempts, due to its strong structure. Its foundation, location, components, and human power make it a treasure that should not be neglected.
The Prime Minister pointed out that the state has made every effort to revive this important industrial castle, while ensuring the sustainability of the work of this castle so that it is not threatened with stopping again, by arriving at an efficient operating system based on the true revival of this industry, with full awareness of the importance of Partnership with the private sector in such major projects.
Madbouly added: The private sector has a greater ability to identify the real needs of the local or global market, and implement highly efficient systems in operation and management, while achieving profitability, adding that, therefore, the government was keen, in order to ensure the sustainability of the return of Al-Nasr Automotive Company, to have a group of partnerships with International institutions through which you can ensure efficient and effective operation, read the needs of the local and international market, and business sustainability.
We will go to the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank, which will hold its seventh meeting during the year 2024, to discuss interest rates on deposits and lending, next Thursday.
At its last meeting, the committee decided to maintain the overnight deposit and lending rates and the central bank’s main operation rate at 27.25%, 28.25% and 27.75%, respectively. It also decided to keep the credit and discount rates at 27.75%.
Aya Zuhair, head of the research department at Zilla Capital, expected that the Central Bank of Egypt would fix the interest rate at the next meeting, with the possibility of gradually reducing it in the first quarter of next year.
Zuhair attributed this to the slowdown in inflation rates and the US Federal Reserve’s tendency to reduce, and for its part, the Central Bank of Egypt seeks to achieve a balance between combating inflation and supporting economic growth.
In the same context, Mohamed Hassan, Managing Director of Alpha Financial Investment Management Company, expected that the Central Bank would tend to keep interest rates as they are at current levels.
He added that inflation rates are still high in Egypt due to the rise in prices of basic products such as electricity, diesel, and others.
We go to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, which issued today, Saturday, the annual bulletin of statistics and financial indicators for public business sector companies and the public sector (except banks and insurance companies) for the year 2022/2023.
According to the bulletin, the value of fixed assets reached 871.3 billion pounds in 2022/2023, compared to 737.2 billion pounds in 2021/2022, an increase of 18.2%.
The value of projects under implementation reached 99.3 billion pounds in 2022/2023, compared to 74.6 billion pounds in 2021/2022, an increase of 33.0%.
The value of wages amounted to 38.8 billion pounds in 2022/2023, compared to 35.1 billion pounds in 2020/2021, an increase of 10.5%.
We go to Mohamed Qassem, head of the Egyptian Exporters Association “Expolink,” who said that the association received many requests for investment in Egypt from Asian and European countries amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars.
He stressed in the press conference on the sidelines of the Destination Africa exhibition that this is in accordance with the initiative launched by the association a year ago, “Investment for Export,” which witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the General Authority for Investment.
Qasim indicated that contact was made with the Investment Authority in order to issue a guide to answer all inquiries of companies wishing to invest in Egypt.
He stressed that the main problem facing the entry of new investments into Egypt is the lack of availability of attached lands, and the state is working to find solutions to this matter.
