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

July 27 to August 10 Coverage:

CBE announced that net international reserves reached $38.314 billion at the end of July 2020.

CAPMAS reported that Egypt’s trade balance deficit tumbled by 36.2% in May 2020 reaching $2.59 billion in comparison to $4.05 billion during the same period in 2019.

The IHS Markit Egypt Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) posted 49.6 in July which increased from 44.6 in June and the closest to the 50 neutral mark in 12 months.

Fitch affirmed its rating for Egypt’s Long-Term Foreign Currency Issuer (IDR) at “B+” with a stable outlook. It referred this assessment to the recent track record of fiscal and economic reforms.

The Minister of Finance, Mohamed Maait, announced raising the exemption limit of income tax by 60% in addition to  exempting  taxes from  those whose annual income stands at about EGP 24,000. He said that this decision seeks to alleviate burdens on citizens.

Minister of Finance, Mohamed Maait said that public investments in the FY 2020/21 budget will witness unprecedented increase of about 35% compared to that in FY 2019/20, as public investments worth EGP 280.7 billion, including more than EGP 225 billion  from the public treasury and other sources.

The Minister of Planning and Economic Development (MPED) , Hala Al Saeed stated that national  projects in the investment plan of FY 2020/21 budget include an  EGP 4 billion project for comprehensive medical insurance,  an EGP 13.9 billion project for developing railways network, an EGP 16.9 billion project for improving national roads network and EGP 19.9 billion project  for developing Suez Canal axis .

The Minister of Planning and Economic Development (MPED), Hala Al Saeed said that FY 2020/21 allocates EGP 93.5 billion for the health sector, with a 28% increase, compared to FY 2019/20 budget.

According to MPED , FDI Intelligence Agency reported that the foreign direct investment ( FDI) inflows to Egypt increased by 20.2% with investments worth $13.7 billion in 2019, which gives Egypt the top position in the MENA region.

According to the Cabinet, the Minister of International cooperation , Rania Al Mashat, discussed with the EIB representative the future of cooperation in various fields such as  transportation, agriculture and health sectors and recent agreed finance agreement of EUR 1.13 billion to finance three projects by National Authority for Tunnels.

According to Al Ahram , the Chairman of Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA), Mohamed Omran, said that the establishment of eight new companies  was approved  in accordance with the provisions of the Capital Market Law promulgated by Law No. 95 of 1992, during the first seven months of the year.