A summary of the week’s important macroeconomic updates and indicators brought to you on one page for your convenience.

Covering November 20 to November 26.

Egypt is on course to achieve a 2% primary budget surplus in fiscal year (FY) 2018/19, as state revenues increased by 35% year-on-year in the first quarter, Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait has said.

Egypt’s budget deficit fell to 1.9% from 2% in Q1 2018/19, according to minister Maait, Reuters reported.

Egyptian non-oil exports increased to $1.988 billion in October 2018, up from $1.945 billion in October 2017, according to the General Organization for Import and Export Control, Amwal Al Ghad reported.

The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) will permit mobile lending in the first half of 2019 in order to encourage financial inclusion, sources from Egypt’s major telecommunications companies told Al Mal.

The CBE has begun working with the European Union on a €3.2 billion program designed to increase the rate of financial inclusion and enhance banking oversight, according to Al Ahram.

Amendments to the Income Tax Act will require banks to separately account for earnings on government bond and treasury bills, a Cabinet statement announced.

The EGX30 fell by 3.8% on Sunday 25 November – its biggest drop in three years – led by a selloff in banking stocks, according to data published by Mubasher.

Egyptians deposited $199.5 billion in the national banking system in FY 2017/18, according to Amwal Al Ghad.

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has agreed to borrow $20 million from the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development to construct the Sharm El-Sheikh tunnel road, Al Ahram reported.