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

Covering January 8 to January 14.

Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait announced during the CI Capital MENA Investors Conference that he will go on a trip starting from January 14 to visit Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and China to discuss bond issuances, Enterprise reported.

The Ministry of Finance will revisit the legislative framework that sets out the taxes the government will collect to fund the universal healthcare scheme under the Universal Healthcare Act, Minister Mohamed Maait said on January 10 at a meeting with several accounting firms and other representatives, according to Alborsa news.

Annual headline inflation continued to decline in December 2018 to record 12%, compared to 15.7% in November 2018, according to CBE statement.

Egypt’s inflation stayed within the central bank’s target range for the second month after the biggest monthly decline in at least over a decade, Bloomberg reported.

Egypt’s current account deficit declined to $1.751 billion from July to end-September 2018, from $1.754 billion a year earlier. Last year the central bank had put the July-September 2017 figure at $1.64 billion.

The World Bank sees Egypt’s economic growth accelerating 0.2% faster in 2019 than originally anticipated in 2018, according to its Global Economic Prospects 2019.

The international reserves fell for the first time in two years in December 2018, reaching $42.551 billion, down about $ 2 billion from the previous month that was around $44.513 billion, the CBE said in a statement.