July 01, 2012 By Farah Halime CAIRO // As politicians and economists start drawing up plans to bring Egypt’s economy back from the brink, the country’s small business owners say they are unlikely to reap benefits any time soon. The election of a new president, Mohammed Morsi,has put the country on a firmer footing on … Continue reading
June 06, 2012 By Farah Halime CAIRO (Zawya Dow Jones)–Just days after Egypt’s EFG Hermes received full shareholder support for its planned alliance with Qatar’s QInvest , the Planet IB consortium that is attempting a hostile takeover of the bank said shareholders should force the board to either allow the group of investors to conduct due diligence … Continue reading
May 25, 2012 By Farah Halime In Boulaq El Dakrour, the largest informal settlement in Giza, Cairo, two widows sit in a cramped room facing each other listening to the tinny sound of prayer recital on the radio. One begins to cry. Wafa’s husband died from cancer just over a year ago and she has … Continue reading
May 21, 2012 By Farah Halime GIZA, Egypt—Businesses relying on tourists visiting Egypt’s ancient sites are counting on the post-revolution presidential elections later this month to calm political turbulence, allowing their companies to return to something resembling normal after suffering their worst slump in three decades. Until the revolution last year that toppled the long-standing … Continue reading
May 06, 2012 By Farah Halime CAIRO // Egypt’s petroleum ministry is struggling to keep its spending under tabs. Now overspending threatens one of the most important projects in the nation: the contract for natural gas. Having made significant gas discoveries over the past decade, Egypt has the 16th-largest proved natural-gas reserves in the world … Continue reading
April 30, 2012 By Farah Halime CAIRO // Every year the Egyptian government spends about US$5.5 billion (Dh20.2bn) on food subsidies for three quarters of the country’s population. In the 30 years that Hosni Mubarak ruled Egypt, the country started importing more than half its total caloric consumption, making Egypt highly vulnerable to global food price volatility … Continue reading
April 29, 2012 By Farah Halime CAIRO (Zawya Dow Jones)–The Egyptian government hopes it can seal a quick deal with the International Monetary Fund to stablize the economy and avoid a balance of payments crisis, but political forces still seem aligned against an agreement before the military hands over power to a new president later … Continue reading
April 2, 2012 By Farah Halime CAIRO // Egypt’s trade union movement has been gaining momentum since the nation’s revolution last year, but the new-found push for labour rights has been dampened by disorderly strikes that threaten to derail an economic recovery. An uprising driven by demands to tackle high unemployment, runaway inflation and … Continue reading
March 18, 2012 By Farah Halime CAIRO // Egypt is solidifying rules and regulations that will allow companies to issue Islamic bonds, or sukuk, in an early sign it is positioning itself to tap into a boom in Islamic finance. The North African nation will “by the end of June” finalise the executive regulations to allow … Continue reading
March 14, 2012 By Farah Halime CAIRO (Zawya Dow Jones)–Egypt is likely to finalize regulations that allow local companies to issue Islamic bonds by the end of June, a much awaited move that is expected to boost market liquidity by tapping the Arab state’s large Muslim population, according to the country’s top regulatory official. A … Continue reading
