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

November 8 to November 15 Coverage:

The Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to cut the overnight deposit rate, overnight lending rate, and the rate of the main operation by 50 points to 8.25%, 9.25%, and 8.75% respectively. The discount rate was also cut by 50 basis points to 8.75%.

According to CBE, the annual headline inflation rate recorded 4.5% in October, compared to 3.7% in September.

The Ministry of International Cooperation (MOIC) declared that the signed agreements between Egypt and the World Bank (WB) reached $1.15 billion in 2020 to support over 30 million Egyptian citizens in various sectors.

The total current portfolio of bilateral cooperation between Egypt and WB amounts to $5.38 billion in various sectors, MOIC reported.

The total investments of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in Egypt is EUR 6.8 billion in 123 projects, MOIC stated.

The current portfolio of the projects between EBRD and Egypt reached to EUR 4.6 billion, where EUR 2.7 billion were invested in 92 projects for the private sector and EUR 1.9 billion invested in 13 projects for the public sector, MOIC reported.

Egypt ranked 114th out of 190 countries in the World Bank Group’s (WBG) 2020 Ease of Doing Business report, rising six spots compared to Egypt’s 120th rank in 2019’s report, Minister of Trade and Industry, Neveen Gamea said.

The trade exchange volume between Egypt and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) countries amounted to $3.9 billion in 2019 compared to $3.2 billion in 2018, increasing by 19.1%, Minister of Trade and Industry, Neveen Gamea, stated.

Egypt’s exports to the COMESA countries reached $2.8 billion in 2019 versus $2.3 billion in 2018, which is a 22.5% increase, Minister of Trade and Industry, Neveen Gamea, said.

Egypt’s exports to Sudan were estimated at $496 million in 2019 compared to $418 million in 2018, recording an increase of 19%, Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) reported.

According to Oxford Insights report, Egypt ranked 56th out of 172 countries globally on the Government Artificial Intelligence (AI) Readiness Index 2020, compared to Egypt’s rank in 2019 which was 111 out of 194 countries.