North Africa/Middle East

Egypt has signed contracts to sell stakes in state assets worth a total of $1.9 billion as part of a programme to boost the private sector and raise scarce hard currency, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The contracts include a deal to sell minority stakes in three companies to Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ for $800 million, and a deal to raise $700 million by increasing the capital of a company that owns a group of hotels in Egypt, said Planning Minister Hala el-Said.

The Bank of Israel left short-term borrowing rates unchanged on Monday for the first time in more than a year amid signs of easing inflation, but warned that rates could still be hiked further if the moderation in price growth did not continue, Reuters reported. The central bank kept its benchmark rate at 4.75% - its highest level since late 2006. It had raised rates 10 straight times in an aggressive tightening cycle that has taken the rate from 0.1% last April. "Inflation is broad and remains high.

Newcastle United co-owner Amanda Staveley has been plunged into a multimillion-pound bankruptcy row with a Greek shipping tycoon, The Telegraph reported. Ms Staveley, who helped Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund acquire the Premier League club in 2021, has asked the High Court to prevent shipping magnate Victor Restis from forcing her into bankruptcy, new filings reveal. Mr Restis claims Ms Staveley has failed to repay a loan of more than £35m that dates back to over a decade.

Egypt looked past a pick-up in inflation to keep interest rates unchanged for a second month, with the central bank’s next bout of monetary tightening likely hinging on the country’s ability to secure the foreign exchange needed to manage another currency devaluation, Bloomberg News reported. The Monetary Policy Committee on Thursday maintained the deposit rate at 18.25% and the lending rate at 19.25%, in a decision that matched the forecasts of most economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

Egypt's cabinet has approved a draft law to eliminate tax exemptions for state entities in a bid to attract private investment, a cabinet statement said on Wednesday, but the law appeared to retain at least some privileges enjoyed by the army, Reuters reported. Egypt, in the midst of a severe foreign currency shortage, has been seeking to encourage both foreigners and Egyptians to invest more. Many investors have hesitated out of concern that state-owned enterprises, including those owned by the army, use tax exemptions and other privileges to compete unfairly.

Tunisia's central bank held its key interest rate unchanged at 8%, it announced on Friday, saying that keeping the interest rate at the current level will continue to push inflation downward, Reuters reported. In December, the bank raised the key interest rate by 75 basis points to 8% to combat high inflation, marking its third rate hike last year. The annual inflation rate eased to 9.6% in May from 10.1% in April, and a high of 10.4% in February. "The current monetary trends would contribute to pushing down inflation rates during the coming period", the bank said in statement.

Days after welcoming Secretary of State Antony Blinken as part of efforts to reset relations with the US, Saudi Arabia turned its attention to boosting ties with one of Washington’s main competitors: China, Bloomberg News reported. For the past two days, the Saudi capital has played host to the largest ever Chinese-Arab business gathering. Under the chandeliers and vaulted ceilings of Riyadh’s grandest conference hall, Saudi officials spoke of integrating China into the Arab region and Chinese executives said they stood ready to “de-Americanize” the world’s top oil exporter.

Egyptian inflation accelerated after a monthlong respite, as a round of price increases by authorities fans pressures already building following three currency devaluations, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices in urban parts of Egypt climbed an annual 32.7% in May from 30.6% the previous month, according to a statement Saturday from the state-run statistics agency CAPMAS. Food and beverage costs, the largest single component of the inflation basket, rose 60%.

All five members of the Bank of Israel's monetary policy committee voted on May 22 to raise the benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage points to 4.75%, minutes of the discussion showed on Monday, Reuters reported. "The committee members noted that economic activity in Israel is at a high level, and is accompanied by a tight labour market, although there is some moderation in a number of indicators. Inflation is broad and remains high," the minutes said. Read more.