Month: April 2019

Egypt’s annual headline inflation decelerated to 14.2% in March from 14.4% in the previous month, according to data posted by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS). Monthly prices rose 0.8% compared with a rise of 1.7% in February, with food and beverage prices rising 1.5% m-o-m compared with 3.5% m-o-m last month, the data showed. (CAPMAS).

HC’s comment: The March monthly headline inflation figure has normalized compared to that of February, with the 0.8% monthly price increase translating to annualized inflation of 10%. The rise was mainly due to a 1.5% m-o-m increase in food and beverage prices, contributing to a 0.86% increase in total monthly inflation, according to the published breakdown, which highly mimicked urban inflation figures. The remaining items of the CPI basket have only marginally changed in February with almost a flat net effect.

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“HC first NBFS event with participation from over 20 financial institutions”
— 9 April 2019 — Fairmont Nile City Hotel – Cairo.

“HC Brokerage organized on Tuesday, 9 April 2019 its first corporate access event to its local financial institutional clients, providing them with extensive details on the operations and financial performance of Egypt’s non-banking financial services (NBFS) sector via multiple sessions led by key sector players”

Egypt reported a balance of payments (BOP) deficit of USD2.06bn in 2Q18/19, down from a surplus USD0.51bn a year earlier and USD0.28bn in the previous quarter, data posted by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) showed. (CBE).

HC’s comment: Egypt’s capital and financial account registered net inflows of USD0.23bn, down from USD4.18bn in 2Q17/18. This drop was largely due to (1) a decrease in borrowings, which decreased to USD0.61bn in 2Q18/19 from USD4.49bn a year earlier, and (2) net portfolio investment outflows of USD2.63bn compared with a net portfolio investment inflow of USD0.55bn a year earlier. Despite net foreign direct investments (FDIs) decreasing c12% y-o-y to USD1.63bn in 2Q18/19, they increased c57% compared with the previous quarter, covering c77% of the current account deficit for the same period, which widened to USD2.10bn from USD1.79bn last year. Egypt’s trade balance deficit narrowed slightly to USD9.36bn from USD9.84bn a year earlier, mainly on the back of an increase in petroleum-export proceeds to USD3.20bn in 2Q18/19 from USD2.03bn a year earlier, while petroleum imports dropped to USD2.36bn in 2Q18/19 from USD3.23bn in the previous year. The services balance recorded a surplus of USD1.21bn in 2Q18/19, up from USD0.94bn a year earlier, mainly on the back of slightly higher travel receipts, which increased some c25% y-o-y to USD2.86bn, but dropped c27% q-o-q. Net unrequited transfers decreased c15% y-o-y to USD6.05bn in 2Q18/19.

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