·         Inflation figures for December 2021 will be released by CAPMAS tomorrow morning. We expect urban headline inflation to record c.6% YoY, as some food items' prices cool down relatively, but favorable base effect starts to fade away.

·         Net International Reserves inched up by about USD26 million in December 2021, due to increments in foreign currencies and gold components.

·         Minister of Finance said that the draft budget for FY2022/23 aims to achieve 5.7% economic growth as the government looks to keep expansion on track. The budget also targets a primary surplus of 1.5%, an overall deficit of 6.1% and decreasing public debt to less than 90% of GDP.

·         The government targets some wide reforms to restructure the entire subsidy system in the economy.

·         The Prime Minister said that the government has prepared a strategy for higher private sector participation in economic development, in preparation for a meeting with several representatives of the private sector, to finalize the strategy.

·         The House of Representatives approved a bill to funnel a percentage of the annual surplus generated by ministerial “private funds” to the state treasury. The bill is expected to generate a combined EGP2.5-3.0 bn for state revenues, equivalent to 7-8% of the annual EGP36 bn surplus.  

·         The government is looking to finalize the executive regulations of the Sovereign Sukuk Act by the end of January, setting the stage for the country’s c.USD2 billion issuance before the end of the fiscal year in June 2022.

·         The yield on US 10-years rose to its highest level since January 2020 and stocks sold off last week after a weak US jobs report had traders anticipating that the Fed could hike rates in March 2022.

·         The number of mobile wallets increased by 27% YoY to stand at 25mn in 2021. Number of Transactions recorded 227 mn mobile wallet transactions last year (double the number of transactions in 2020), where the total transactions value surged by 160% YoY to EGP233 bn. On a Separate note, CBE launched a new platform “Meeza wallet management” for users to manage mobile wallet subscriptions electronically.

·         Number of companies registered on the e-invoice platform for B2B transactions reached around 31k companies. The number of e-invoices processed daily is currently around 650k and expected to rise to 1mn daily transactions by end of March 2022. EFIH is working with the government the on e-invoice implementation and other digitalization initiatives that aims at controlling tax evasion and accordingly increase the government’s tax revenues.

·         Meeza cards to replace all government payroll cards by the end of January 2022, with around 4.3 mn public sector workers will be receiving their salaries via Meeza debit cards by the end of the month. e-cards, a subsidiary of EFIH, is working with the government on issuing Meeza cards and is assigned to produce 18mn Meeza cards for Egyptian banks.

·         Legislation to regulate the fintech industry received final approval from the House of Representatives on Wednesday.